I've lived many lives-lives you'll never know about. To the public, I'm Joann Blanchett, a name adored by fans, a voice that echoes through arenas, a face that graces every magazine cover. But that's only the part I let them see.
There are pieces of me buried so deep, even I struggle to remember them. Moments of darkness, identities lost, a history that should have never existed. When I was young, I was torn from everything I knew, sent to a place that was never meant to be home. I took on a new name, a new face, became someone who wasn't me. I buried the girl I had been under layers of fear and pain.
For years, I played the role of someone I wasn't, hiding in plain sight, masking my truth. I became what I needed to survive-silent, invisible, forgotten. And when I returned, I was supposed to be whole again. But I wasn't.
When I returned, I was Joann once more - but I was never the same. The girl who left behind everything she knew never came back. Instead, there's only a woman who has learned the art of silence, who has mastered the mask. I've lived more lives than anyone could ever guess, each one more fragile than the last.
The truth is, no one really knows me. Not the real me. And perhaps they never will. For some stories are meant to be whispered only in the dark, for ears that know better than to ask questions they aren't ready to hear.
I pointed to the cardboard boxes under the table, "All packed. It's my last day."
Then I continued packing quietly, my hands bathing in the soft orange glow of dusk that illuminated the place I called home for six years. The warm and familiar scent of carpentry, dried paint, and electric cable coatings filled my nostrils, sending a jolt of pain to my heart. Minutes must have passed before she spoke up:
"Don't go, Edith."
"Is there something else you need help with?"
"No," she stepped closer and put one hand on my cardboard box, "I mean, don't leave the company. Not yet..."
The stunned look on my face and my inability to speak must've made an impact on her, because I heard a word that I never thought would come out of her mouth.
"...please."
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When Edie, a twenty-something theater administrator, is offered the chance to interview for a promotion, she jumps at it. Except the board forgot to tell her that she's up against a Hollywood power couple gunning for the same job: Artistic Director of the Sydney Theatre Company.
Cate Blanchett x OC. F/F. Enemies to lovers, slowburn, angst, fluff, eventual smut, the whole nine yards of human emotions.