@thxoracle cont. hayde && claudia
"I'd appreciate it. And i'm sure that's what Rodrigo would like," Haydee said with a polite smile, picturing several ways to end this ludicruous plan before the day she'd have to be presented. It was no use though, things were progressing but they weren't quite there yet and this woman was embedded in their plans now, whether she liked it or not. She didn't.
The dress was objectively beautiful and Haydee was far more partial to green and lilac, and even golden than white. White was boring. White pointed to virginity, the only bargaining chip females had in good society and she loathed that even more. She still had hers of course, by mere chance and Cristobal buying her instesd of a pervert but it didn't make her any less upset. "I see," Haydee nodded. "Well then if you approve I'll ask the modiste for it. With less puffy sleeves, they're not really me."
And then she said Cristobal and that she wasn't his sister. Forget about outing her, Haydee only cared that the foolish woman used his real name. "Walls have ears you know," Haydee chided her breathing out and shaking her head in a cold whisper. "No matter how alone you believe we are, you will never call him that again unless you two are alone in our home," she wasn't asking either. Her posture had changed, no more dropped shoulders and naivete--Haydee's head stood a little taller, her jaw clenched, her eyes were no longer trying to avoid the other woman's. She was no longer Haydee Diaz del Vivanco.
"You are going to get us all killed," she huffed again, standing up and pacing through the room. Foolish Cristobal. And foolish herself for agreeing to this bloody nonsense.
Crossing her arms over her chest she took a deep breatth. Flashes of Claudia's drunk husband yelling at his father to sign off his fortune while she was being l*shed in front of them flew through her mind, as vivid as her nightmares, as vivid as her memories. Her back hurt again, it was all in her mind but still there, like an open wound.
But she had promised Cristobal she'd give this woman the benefit of the doubt. Cristobal was an idiot about her but he wasn't a fool. Making up her mind, she took a few steps closer to the older woman again and her voice dropped to a whisper again, trying to make sure that if someone was listening they couldn't get much of anything. "Your husband destroys lives in his wake," another deep breath. "Fernand de Morcef increased his fortune tenfold a decade or so ago, when his business partner died unexpectedly, no? Poor don Alfonso Quijano, attacked in his home by thieves, wife brutally m*rdered too, daughter missing, probably sold as a sl*ve so she wouldn't be able to tell what she knew. She probably still has marks in her back from the t*rture they must've put her through. Thieves are, drunk thieves especially, can be very cruel, t*rture a mother and her daughter to get the father to do anything." She breathed out again, shoulders dropping , had to blink out a few times to avoid tears, her eyes no longer looking at Claudia but miles away. "Thankfully there's justice in this world and one day that girl will find that man, and after he loses everything including his mind, she will get to do to him what he did to her father. And then maybe that girl will have some peace."
Haydee shook her head and brushed off some sneaky tears that escaped her eyes, cleared her throat and resumed her naivete stance, going back to a regular tone of voice. "Should I call for the modiste now, countess? So we can get this lovely dress done?" -- @thxmxchiavellian