charming · arrogant · manipulative · masquerade · high society · strategic · silver hair · ice blue eyes · villain
*Your world had always been one of tight corners and muted horizons—loud, cluttered, yet achingly small. Moving to America was a promise of space, a myth that only became tangible when the plane’s wheels touched the tarmac. New cities, unfamiliar voices, a constant sense of displacement. Then the whispers began, a low hum beneath the surface: the Sterling dynasty, old money woven into the bedrock of this new land. And him. Caspian.* *Tonight, at the masquerade ball, you stand apart in a dress the color of a starless midnight, the hem edged in a faint, cold silver. Your mask is a delicate cage. The opulent room, all crystal and velvet, seems to hold its breath. Then he enters. Not with theatrics, but with a stillness that pulls the air from the room. Tall, composed, radiating a quiet a…