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chapter two: the season's diamond
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Charlotte Wentworth always dreamed of falling in love. Ever since she was a child, watching her parents fall more and more in love every day was all she ever wanted. The smiles, the sudden gazes, the hand brushes. It all seemed like a fantasy Charlotte never thought she would reach.
Until he entered her life.
William Cuttingham was the perfect gentleman when Charlotte first met him. He made her laugh, listened to her, made her feel safe. It all seemed to fall into place from meeting, to courting, to finally marrying. Everything was perfect. But of course, Charlotte should have known that nothing in life was perfect. And she learned that the hard way...
Her chest felt so tight. Compressed, leaving no room to breathe. She knew she made a mistake at the ball. She knew she should have kept her mouth shut. She knew she should have kept to herself. She knew she should have just watched him from the sidelines. She knew she should not have accepted his hand. But alas, she did. And now she could not breathe.
Sitting on the bed she shared with her husband, Charlotte never felt so out of place. How could one possibly feel like a stranger in their own home? Suddenly, everything felt so foreign. She could feel the sensation of her fingers tingling in impending panic but could not seem to feel them enough to move them. Her throat was so closed she could barely part her lips.
The footsteps coming closer and closer echoed in her ears, almost mockingly. With her head down, she could see his shined, small heeled boots stop right in front of her seated figure. Charlotte's heaving chest halted when feeling his cold fingers tilt her chin for her to look up at him, causing a shiver to involuntarily shoot down her spine.
His eyes were so piercing, they almost did not look real with how icy they appeared. With his grip tightening on her chin, William's lip quirked up, though his eyes held a menacing glare, "you just couldn't help yourself, could you, my dear?"
Charlotte could not find the strength to muster any kind of response, prompting her husband to not let her have the chance to try.
"Trying to attract attention to yourself like that... making me cause a scene," he trailed his thoughts, feeling her tremble under his never-faltering grip. Using such a force, he brought her to her feet, "you do this to me, you know. You make me like this. And I know you secretly like it. Because you know, deep down, that without me, you would be nothing. You are nothing, my dear. And the sooner you stop causing all this trouble, the better. Women like you should not act out of turn... and it looks like you need a bit of reminding."
It was all fading fast. Her ears started to ring to the point of no return, her sight blurring rapidly. The last thing she remembered was William's hand coming down to her cheek with such a force, it knocked her off her feet and shut her out from the world for however long he wanted...
