Where Every Scroll is a New Adventure
A well written character has a pull to them. This pull is sometimes so strong that their writer can't defy it.
Mercedes is such a character. She lived most of her life thinking that Edmond was dead, she made peace with it, she built a new life around her. Her son was the outlet for her love and her reason to live.
She didn't hide her grief, she gave it a form, made a monument to it, and entrusted it to her son, thus letting it go in a way, but never letting it be forgotten.
It was the portrait of a young woman of five or six and twenty, with a dark complexion, and light and lustrous eyes, veiled beneath long lashes. She wore the picturesque costume of the Catalan fisherwomen, a red and black bodice, and golden pins in her hair. She was looking at the sea, and her form was outlined on the blue ocean and sky.
This portrait that hang in Albert's room shows us the Mercedes that still waited, still hoped, and still grieved.
The fact that she externalised her feelings in this way, with Fernand being aware of it, shows the journey that she went through. The journey that was her beginning, but that wasn't her entire life.
As we meet her 24 years after she lost Edmond, she is a sensitive, noble figure, a devoted mother, a good wife, an enviable hostess. She has a life that she built for herself while Fernand was away, making his fortune through his ill-bringing ways.
Maybe she wasn't happy, but she was content.
The Count appearing was for her like seeing a vengeful spirit rising from his grave. She grieved, she mourned him, she revered him, but it wasn't enough. He returned like a vampire cursed by god.
All that she knew was that he didn't see a true friend in her. She tried to appease him, but he didn't budge. Why? The Count didn't know what trust is after being betrayed by humanity.
He befriended her son, but then he wanted to kill him. She thought it was because of her, and when she found out it wasn't the case, she felt like she broke the curse. She stopped the Count from destroying what she loved most - her son - and she gained peace.
Her main motivation from then on was leaving everything that she had because of Fernand behind. Only her son by her side, she was finally forgiven by the heavens and herself.
It's a dignified conclusion for a dignified character.
Why couldn't she return to Edmond? Because he was dead. She grieved, she mourned him, she revered him. The Count was but a ghost of a man she once loved, as distant from Edmond as she was distant from the young woman in her old portrait.
Twenty four years is a long time. She loved Edmond who was open to the world, eager, and full of love himself. Maybe now she could love his opposite version, but for that he would have to show that he himself trusted her. Where there's no will, there's no way.
It's okay to pine for their relationship, but pushing them into it would take too much as they pull their own way. The Count pulls to fulfilling his destiny, while Mercedes wants to find peace. They have no place in which they meet.