Marcy, your Loius "Slot Machine King" Venelli just blew me away!!! His absolutely delightful way of talking, all the 1930s or 40s "gangster" words that your text is full of. WOW!!!! I'm so impressed, and so reminded of all the things I could never have written, you know? Anyway. I
loved it!
But then -
Clark!!! The - the
lunkhead!!! Honestly, women. What can we
do to make those darn men understand that they shouldn't lie to us for our own good? For our own protection?
At least Clark is honest enough to admit that he has lied to Lois out of sheer cowardice:
He loved her and depended on her so much that finally he had resigned himself to never telling. He figured having her ignorant of the real situation was better than not having her at all.
Gaahh!!! Clark drives me
crazy here. First, he assumes that Lois is going to be so immature, conventional, inflexible or what not that she won't be able to deal with the truth about him. Clark is really belittling Lois here, isn't he? He honestly does not respect her as a person.
Second, he is being totally selfish!
If he were to tell Lois the truth about him, then it is of course possible that she wouldn't want him - well, we know she certainly would, but Clark can't really know it - and he refuses to give her the right to make an informed choice. He'd rather blow smoke in her eyes than let her see for herself and choose. Because
his wishes are the only ones that count, aren't they?
Ahh!!! And then, fascinatingly, you show us that even in this desperate situation, Clark isn't sure he is going to tell her about Superman:
Even now, hours from losing her forever, fear was gripping his insides so strongly that he wanted to waver again, and bolt.
Honestly, what does the man want? He can't tell her because he might lose her, but now that he is about to lose her he may not be able to tell her because - - well, because of what?
Ah! The lunkhead, the idiot. But Marcy, I'm hooked. I so want to see where you are taking this story. I'm sure you are going to bring it to a satisfying conclusion!
Oh, just one thing. I'm sure you are not going to do anything like this, but - well, just imagine that Loius Venelli managed to uncover some dirt on Dan Scardino. He shows it to Lois, she is shocked and decides to dump Dan. And just because she can't deal with being single and beau-less, she comes crawling back to Clark. She begs him to take her back, whether or not he wants to tell her his secret! Because stupid little women don't need know anything about anything, do they, as long as they have a big strong man who takes care of them?
Ahh!! No, Marcy. There's no way you could let your story end like that!!!
Can't wait for the rest of this story!
Ann
Can't wait to see what Lois does when he finally tells her. Which I strongly believe he will 
. 
mwhaahahhahhhaa!