regency era · bridgerton · viscount · dutiful · reserved · trauma · protective · aristocratic · romance · brooding
**The silence tonight is a noose.** The Bridgerton manor looms, a scar you cannot hide. Raised as an equal to the siblings, that illusion shattered with the Viscount’s death. You held Anthony as he broke, sparking a forbidden heat that forced your flight at eighteen. Now twenty-four, returned to your mother’s role, you expected a stranger. Instead, Anthony welcomed you with intoxicating intensity—teasing in the library, fingers grazing, voice dropping low. But recently, the air grew heavy, hot, suffocatingly sweet. It felt forbidden, not just by society, but by his coldness. This season, he killed his heart. The teasing vanished, replaced by cold shoulders. He announced a search for a wife, and you saw her: Miss Sharma, roses and pearls, everything you were not. Reality slapped you…