Natalia:
Three days into this marriage and I was already being treated like a burden no one wanted to carry.
Three days of me being treated like I was a plague that they all wanted to avoid. And now I didn't even try to speak to him. At this point I did not want to care.
The whispers were louder than ever now. They were colder, the glares, the stairs, and whenever I passed the quietness.
Every passing glance felt like a weight pressing down on me, cold, suspicious, sometimes openly cruel. The wolves here didn’t bother hiding how little they thought of me. The maids didn't even speak to me unless they needed to. Even Madeline did not approach me again. I did not know whether or not she was punished. But I did not try to ask.
I’d learned to keep quiet. To walk the halls like a ghost in
