Society's Expectations & Too Many Complications {Finalist}

Chapter 20

Rosalia?" William's question lingered in my ears, like a wave surrounding me in its blue depths, then crashed down upon me. "What ever is the matter?"

"N-nothing," I replied shakily, still trying to piece together what was happening. "Nothing at all, William, just thinking."

He smiled and said more words, but I wasn't listening at this point. My mind had drifted away to a different point in a different time. I didn't know how to make sense of it all. That William had been so like the first, like a breath of fresh air. He had been the true one, I was sure of it.

Then who was this man standing in front of me?

Sir William was a gentleman, though. He could not- could not have lied. Taken the place of another, taken an entirely new identity. He had seemed to fit everything, had been all of what I had thought he was. This must have been the masked gentleman from the start, it could not have been a different person, I would have known.

"My only love sprung from my only hate," I recited to him, waiting for his reaction. Sir William stared blankly back.

"Rosalia, what are you-"

"A rose is a rose by any other name," I continued, my voice rising as he continued to look non-plussed. "If love be rough with you, be rough with love."

"I am not entirely-"

"These violent delights have violent ends," I quoted, my voice now crackling with energy and fury.

"Rosalia-"

"And as they kiss-"

"My dear-"

"Consume."

There was a silence between us, as he tried to decipher me with that smile of his I would have once thought handsome. Now it was a fine line of lies, a string of betrayal and extras of falsehood.

"When I first met a masked gentleman by name of William," I explained, my smile a chip of ice. "He recited to me lines from a play, Romeo and Juliet."

Understanding and a touch of horror began to dawn upon my false suitor's face.

"I just recited many lines to you, lines you should have easily known," I continued. "Lines which were dear to the heart of the William. Can you guess what that means for you?"

"Let me explain-"

"You are a liar," I hissed at him, enraged beyond belief. "You are not the true William. Who in Hell do you think you are, you disgusting creature!?"

"I am your suitor," William replied, in a more dignified fashion than could be believed. "I wanted to gain your hand in marriage."

"So you thought to do so, with means that suit your conniving nature," I surmised, shaking my head in disgust and stepping away from him. "Snake."

"It was not my idea to dupe you," he tried to excuse himself. "I only wished to be your husband by capturing your heart, not like this."

"Then...why?" I asked him, the swing of anger still in full motion. "Why would you try and claim something that was only meant for one person?"

"I was approached," William answered. "Approached by the Duchess herself."

What had she done? This offence was too grievous in my eyes.

"She proposed to me that I would be the William that you had loved," he explained. "She said it was the only way that I could gain your hand, as you were stubborn and would have no other than this William."

"My mother," I echoed emptily, wondering how one of my own blood could betray me so cruelly.

"I knew it was wrong," William tried to apologise. "But I only did it-"