Chaelisa Diaries # 1

Manumittere

Summary: Roseanne runs away from home to finally taste some freedom. Lalisa has to survive a hundred times to be granted hers. Plot set in Ancient Rome.

18k+ words

DISCLAIMER: This is an adaptation of an original book by O. T. Turner.

WARNINGS: 18+, G!P, insta-love, fluff, violence, this is basically smut with some plot + historical drama (some facts are completely innacurate).

Also, please bear with my attempt to transform korean names into latin ones I did what I could lol.

*****

Roseanne's POV

"Please, mother," I beg. "Don't make me do this."

She tightens the corset with a grunt until it's crushing my ribs.

"Enough, Roseanne!" she snaps. "I will not hear anymore of this. Lorenius will be a suitable husband for you. He's the best we could manage and your father has paid a considerable dowry to wed you off."

"But I don't love him," I wince as she tightens the top of the corset, trying to bruise me into submission. "He's mean and he smells atrocious."

I want to cry every time I think about tonight. The wedding. Our wedding night after. The things he'll make me do...

"Please, mother." The tears are coming out now, sloppy and desperate. "I don't wish to marry Lorenius. Haven't you heard what they say about him? He's non compos mentis and he frightens me."

"He'll keep your belly full and he'll keep a roof over your head. Honestly, Roseanne, I am surprised we found anyone in the Roman Empire foolish enough to take your hand in marriage. You have no sense of a woman's place."

"My place is not with him."

"It is!" she snaps as she ties the last string on the corset, officially bruising my entire torso. Lorenius will remove it tonight to find nothing but black and blue skin. Maybe that will save me.

"Your place is wherever your father deems fit, and he has decided that there is no better match for you than Lorenius. You will obey us on this, Roseanne, or you will be abandoned and sold into slavery. A daughter who refuses to listen is useless to all."

"I'm afraid," I say, trembling as she begins to comb my hair.

"Every woman is afraid on their wedding night." She yanks the brush down, making me cry out. It feels like my hair is being yanked out by the roots. "You close your eyes and open your legs. He'll do the rest."

I cringe with a shiver as I picture Lorenius' long greasy hair falling onto my face, his rough horrid breath beating down on my lips, his hideous lanky body pressing me into the mattress. The tears start coming hard and fast, streaming down my cheeks as my mother pulls my hair even harder. The tears don't bring out sympathy from her. Only anger.

"Knock off this pathetic display," she hisses. "You're entering womanhood today. Wipe those pitiful tears from your eyes and act like it!"

I wipe them off with the back of my hand and close my eyes, wishing I was somewhere else. Somewhere safe and exotic with someone who loved me. And someone that I adored back.

"Lorenius has the third largest piece of land in all of Verona. You will not go hungry, so stop complaining."

It's not the lack of food I'm worried about. It's him. I won't be his first bride.

I quiver when I think of the stories I've heard. The young bride from Virunum. Her pretty face and gorgeous red locks. She was living on Lorenius' ranch for three months and then she mysteriously disappeared.