Seraph

AU Pt 7 - 1936 - Not an Update

It had only been a few days, but Rosalie settled in quickly with the Harts. She discovered they were a very loving and tight-knit family, but they could be intense. Mainly the mother.

She wasn't too surprised, considering she had seen Serafina blow up over things she would typically not think twice about. Someone catcalling her in street? That is to be expected. Someone ignored her to speak to a man. Understandable. She was taught women were to be seen and not heard after all. If a man was disrespectful or rude to herself, it was fine. She was less than him, after all. Serafina was teaching her to stick up for herself. She was very vocal about it, too. She noticed people typically kowtowed to Serafina when she went off.

At least with Serafina, she absolutely knew it would never be aimed at herself. But she wasn't sure about her mother, so she was actually terrified of the family's matriarch. If Magdalena were to become upset, everyone knew about it. It usually resulted in a tirade of obscenities and threats of violence spoken in Spanish to whoever upset her. Thankfully, it was generally to people who tried to speak down to her because she was a woman or because of her accent. Rosalie got to see this a few times when Magdalena invited her shopping.

Rosalie was very impressed with Luther, though. He was the head of the family and was always calm, cool, and collected when handling any situation. She was surprised at just how intelligent the man was. She never thought he was stupid, but she came from a very sheltered background. She was always taught that criminals never prospered, but that was evidently not true, she discovered as she made her way through the mansion. But she was most impressed with how he was a devoted family man. He always included his family. She knew because she now sat in at the family meetings, too. It was how she discovered that her disappearance did not go as unnoticed as she had hoped.

She knew Royce was unfaithful. He would disappear for days, but he was a man; that was normal. She should be happy that he was so desirable. She should be pleased that other women were obviously jealous of her because she was the wife.

She didn't mind at first. She was happy that she was the envy of other women. But she never liked the infidelity. She was prettier than the others. Why couldn't she be the only one he wanted? The only one he loved? Her marriage was not what she expected. She was lonely. She was so happy when she got pregnant. She thought things would change for the better. And they did somewhat. She was no longer lonely. She had someone she loved who loved her back just as much. But her love for her husband disappeared. It turned into resentment when he couldn't even be bothered to stop his cheating after having a son.

After he hurt her, she thought he would be gone for a few days after he mentioned how busy the office was. He had told her early in their marriage that he would be at the office for several days and not to bother waiting for him when it was busy. She found out later that those late nights at work were actually his cheating excursions. But apparently, he changed his plans.

"He reported she was missing the next day," Angel explained.

"Of course he did. She's his wife," Magdalena said.

Serafina shook her head, though. "No, he doesn't pay attention to her unless he needs something," she said before turning to Rosalie to ask, "Wasn't he going to be gone a few days?"

Rosalie nodded in agreement.

"He had a bouquet of roses, according to my sources," Angel glanced at Rosalie's bruised face again, "An apology maybe?"