Aztec Treasure 17

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Robert goes to Anna's hotel room after the scar incident. She answers his loud knocking and Robert barges in right past her.

Robert: I want to talk to you.

Anna (nervous) Yes of course. Go ahead.

Robert: I'd like the truth. Now when did you conceive of this brilliant idea for fake disfigurement? Is this some sort of another attempt of obtaining sympathy?

Anna: That's not why I did it! I told you!

Robert: Yeah I know what you told me. I just figured we'd have to go through three or four lies before we hit upon the truth.

Anna: Is it so hard to believe that I would carry this guilt around with me all these years?

Robert: Carried? No. Worn-yes. You're either a consummate liar or a psycopath, I'm not sure which.

Anna: (hurt) You just don't understand.

Robert: Don't understand? You're right, I don't understand why a beautiful woman would wear a scar for those years!

Anna: Six and a half.

Robert: Six and a half minutes makes you crazy! Do you expect me… you really expect me to buy this don't you?

Anna: (angry) I don't know anymore. All I know is that I should have never taken the damn thing off!

Robert: You must think I'm a fool. I mean, I'm a little bit gullible. But I've still got most of my senses in tact.

Anna: What are you talking about?

Robert: You really think that I can't find out if you've been wearing this scar for all this time?

Anna: I don't care! Why don't you just go and find out whatever you like! Go! Go and ask your machine anything you want to know about me! (she opens the door signaling him to leave) Get it to tell you the truth about the beautiful Anna Devane!!

Robert leaves and does just that. As he waits for the WSB computer to give him his answer, he flashes back to when they were in love, and when the WSB computer finally pulls up the results he finds out that Anna was indeed telling the truth. The scene fades out… then returns This scene shows him feeling very badly about it so he goes back to the hotel to talk to her about it.

Robert: May I come in?

Anna: (holding the door ajar) There's nothing else to say to you.

Robert: I'd like to talk to you about that scar on your face. (She lets him in but turns her back to him. He waits a moment before he speaks) You were telling the truth about your scar.

Anna: Are you surprised?

Robert: I had to be sure.

Anna: You couldn't believe me?

Robert: Under the circumstances, can you blame me?

Anna: Hmm. Computers never lie.

Robert: Confirmed you've been wearing the scar for all those years.

Anna (faces him) Six and a half long years. But it didn't tell you why, did it?

Robert: Only you know that.

Anna: What can I say? How could I explain it to you?

Robert: I want to understand.

Anna: (walks past him) It no longer matters.

Robert: Does to me, very much.

Anna: Uh, well I would like to believe that.

Robert: Believe it.

Anna: So many betrayals. So many lies. They say you can never go home. I should never have tried.

Robert: (looks at her face) You're wearing the scar again?

Anna: (touches it, she's embarassed) Yes. I'm used to wearing it.

Robert: You're hiding beneath it.

Anna: Perhaps I am.

Robert: You are a beautiful woman Anna. Why hide?

Anna: (laughs) Beauty? It can be a curse. (She sits on her bed and Robert sits right beside her.

Robert: In what way?

Anna: When men look at a beautiful woman, they want to get to know her. They want to get a look at that physical beauty… not the woman herself.

Robert: It was never that way with us.

Anna: I never thought it was.

Robert: So what happened to your face after the accident?

Anna: I had several operations. Until finally one day my face was normal again. No trace of the accident. But everytime I looked in the mirror, I could see that scar on my face. (She starts to cry) I could never let another man want me or look at me again. If they did… I felt dirty. So that's why I chose to wear that scar… as a penance. So no man would ever want me again.

Robert: Are you trying to tell me that you've never been with another man since…

Anna: No. Since we were married. You were the first and the last.

The scene ends… then returns. Robert is in shock over what he’s learned.

Anna: Talk to me. Talk to me… say something. I can't bear to see the pain in your face.

Robert: (stunned) I'm thinking of all the wasted years.

Anna: I was so proud.

Robert: So was I! I was proud and angry and full of hatred. About never getting close or allowing anyone to get close to me again.

Anna: Terrible and wonderful… the way we felt.

Robert: The kind of love that can burn a man alive. Anna, when it... I was as scarred as you were by that explosion. I never realized that fact until tonight.

Anna: I'm frightened to see what I've done to you.

Robert: I didn't turn you in as a double agent because I loved you too much. So, I became the avenging angel. I set out to make the world pay for it's sins by becoming a superhero cop. How ironic.

Anna: How sad.

Robert: The perfect portrait of an honorable man. Do you know what a need I have, Anna? A need to confess my sins? To take what is truly coming to me.

Anna: You can't. You can't do that to Holly. She's the innocent victim in all of this.

Robert: Yeah. Yes, she is the innocent victim.

Anna: You can't hurt her. You can't hurt her anymore than you already have. Or I already have.

Robert: So I keep silent? And I live with what I've done?

Anna: Don't punish yourself for having the capacity to love people. I think that really is the mark of an honorable man.

The scene fades out… then back later.

Anna: Are you trying to get rid of the pity? Do you think you ever will?

Robert: I don't know. The present is too powerful to let me think about the past. Maybe when I've sorted out this mess with the treasure, I can deal with what happened before.

Anna: I hope so.

Robert: I can't promise anything.

Anna: I know that.

Robert: Everything has become so complex. So muddled.

Anna: Because of me.

Robert: You, me, Holly, Sean.

Anna: I'll never embarrass you in front of Holly.

Robert: I believe you. (Anna goes over to her dresser and takes a small satchel out of her drawer and hand's it over to him) What's this?

Anna: Well, if I'm gonna do penance, I can't keep anything from you Robert. I bought those jewels from Slater in New York.

Robert: Why would he come to you?

Anna: Well, I'm a broker of sorts. I buy and sell art objects.

Robert: (smiles) You mean you're a fence.

Anna: (small laugh) Yeah. Call it what you like.

Robert: It's what you call it.

Anna: But if I hadn't bought these from him, somebody else would have.

Robert: True.

Anna: (smug) And then you wouldn't have gotten them back.

Robert: Also true. Anything else?

Anna: No, not that I know of.

Robert: It's been quite a night for confessions, hasn't it?

Anna: (smiling with relief) Yeah. About time, isn't it?

Robert: I'll say. It's long overdue. What are you going to do about the scar?

Anna: Wear it. (She walks over to mirror)

Robert: Forever?

Anna: No. Only until my business is finished here in Port Charles. By then, I should have done my penance.

Robert: No scars?

Anna: No. Only on the inside.

Robert: What are you going to do about that one?

Anna: Pick up the pieces and start my life over (smiles)

Robert: Where?

Anna: I don't know. I haven't really thought about it. One place is as good as another, I suppose. As long as it isn't here. (She pauses in thought) Do you know, for the first time in six years, I really feel like there's hope for me. Thanks to you.

Robert: Well, what do I do but make matters worse for you?

Anna: I don't mean to sound maudlin but you saved me. I'll never forget you for that.

Robert (big smile) I wish you all the best. You deserve it. (He walks over to her slowly, embraces her and kisses her)

Anna: Thank you. (Robert leaves and Anna stands with her back against the door, crying tears of happiness)