September 14th, 1886 — Gallivan Home

No.

Of all the people—Theodore had been bad, and Cecily worse, but they were his children, obligated by blood to love him even if they reviled him. Veronica…she had not signed up for this, and Thaniel had always known it was deceitful to take her as his wife with such a secret hanging over them, but had selfishly done so nonetheless. And now, divine punishment had found him.

How long had she been there? The lingering memory of her scent in his canine nostrils was enough to reassure him that she had arrived on the cusp of his change moments ago—and that there could be no mistaking that she knew what he was now. Naked, the tall man shrank away from his wife in the center of the cellar room that served as his prison three nights each month, afraid to move or even speak until he knew what was to happen.

Would she scream? Flee? Attack him? Nathaniel knew it was too much to hope that she might embrace him, might accept without question the monster that lurked beneath his skin. Would she grow to accept it as Theodore seemed to have done, or grow to hate him as Cecily had?

“Veronica,” he croaked, throat dry from the transformation and head pounding. Even if he had anything  to follow her name, he realized, he could not have said it easily.

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— pretties by Soph ❤ —

She arrived in front of the room and slowly opened the wooden door with her gloved hands to see a furry creature transforming. Veronica was startled for a few seconds before she took out her wand with an intention of stunning the thing but as she glanced once again to the wolf and it's features changed to a more humanly one that she was too familiar with. That face, it only belonged to one man. He was the opposite of the animal before her, he was kind and loving and not a monster. Ronnie wanted to believe that the man was not her spouse. This wasn’t him, please no. He was on a business trip.

“Veronica,”

The voice was dry and hoarse but it was enough to have her know who it belonged to.  Dear Merlin was this a nightmare? She wished it was but it would be naive of her to deny that what she saw was a lie.

“Nathaniel?” She replied shakily while she attempted to get closer to her husband but the fear and pain she felt had made her grip her wand tighter and freeze in a ‘safe’ distance from him. She didn’t know which was more hurtful to know, the fact that she married a monster or that Nathaniel had hidden a secret to her. “What..Ho-Why?” She wanted an explanation but at the same time she was scared to know more.

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Theodore and Cecily, when they had discovered their father’s greatest shame, had been obliged to stay with him out of familial duty and financial need. Veronica, it occurred now to Nathaniel, had no such requirement—and that terrified him. She could ruin him, ruin their family. Thiers was an happy marriage, but even if it had been built on the deepest of passions, he would not have expected her to remain with him, not after something like this.

“Forgive me,” the wizard pleaded, fear and desperation in his eyes.

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— pretties by Soph ❤ —

Veronica ignored his plea of forgiveness and continued to ask questions, "For how long do you plan on hiding this from me?" Probably until her dying breath.She also had this hunch that the deceased Victoria Gallivan had no idea of this man's true form. "I'm your friend and wife, Nathaniel. Don't you trust me?"

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“Trust you?!” he demanded disbelievingly, baffled that she could even say such things. “Do you not see how Cecily looks at me—or doesn’t, as may be more apt—in the year that has passed since she learned of the truth? Can you not fathom my shame at this unholy condition? The shame it would bring to you if it had become known?”

As he spoke, he moved to put on robes, feeling already far too vulnerable to be comfortable remaining naked overlong.

“Trust had nothing to do with it! Why should I ruin your life as I have ruined my own, my children’s lives, if I did not need to?!”

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— pretties by Soph ❤ —

Veronica was left silent. She had no idea how or what to answer. He made sense. Maybe if she were to be in his situation she would have done the same. But still, she was left hurt. Shouldn’t he have known that from the moment he married her that he was risking her reputation? Not just her, reputation but her safety as well.

The woman sighed loudly as she watched her husband make himself somewhat decent. “If you were really thinking of not ruining my life or our children’s lives you should not have married me in the first place. ” She answered after a minute or two. "You were placing yourself in more risk. Why?"

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She had him there. It had been a form of selfishness, really, that had prompted him to seek a second wife, but how could he tell her that? How could Nathaniel admit that he had married her for the benefit of his existing children, not for her own or that of the children she would go on to bear him? How could he admit to failing so utterly as a husband in that respect?

“Cecily and Theodore needed a mother,” he admitted at last, quietly, “whether they believed so or not. The same attack that so…so tainted me stole away my first wife, stole from them their mother. Stole from them a part of their father. In marrying you…I thought not of myself, but of returning some level of normalcy to their lives. It was cowardly,” Thaniel admitted, “to bring you into all this, but a coward is what I am,” he practically spat the word.

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— pretties by Soph ❤ —

Theodore and Cecily where only children when her courtship with Nathaniel began and the two needed a maternal figure, especially her step-daughter who was in need of a female role-model. Veronica knew that he was only looking for a replacement for the deceased Mrs. Gallivan whom he truly felt love and affection.

It was wrong of him to involve her in this mess but it wasn’t wrong for him to try a give his children of what they deserved. "You might have failed as my husband but you have succeeded in being a good father.” She commented quietly. He was only trying to do his job, Veronica thought.

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Nathaniel let out a breath he did not know he had been holding, both relieved at her words and feeling as if they had punched him in the gut. He was not a good husband—not deep down, for all that he cared for Veronica and their children, for all that he was a faithful and dutiful husband. He knew that, but to hear her say it was still a blow. But his status as a father—though almost all he did was for his children, he had still felt for more than a decade like a failure in that regard, particularly where Cecily was concerned. To hear someone he so valued, he had so disappointed, correct him on that score was a thin bandage over a gaping wound, but a bandage none the less.

A long pause, and then, quietly, “What are we to do now?”

Thaniel was almost afraid to hear the answer.

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— pretties by Soph ❤ —

While those words were her true feelings, she had regretted for saying them. It felt like it had been too harsh even for her husband. She can't take them back now.

“What are we to do now?”

She held her breath for a moment. In all honesty, she wanted to know the same. Veronica would never intend  to expose his secret, that would just ruin her family, her children and them. "A secret will remain as it is." she tells him firmly but Ronny can't help feel anxiousness and worry.

"And don't you think it is not very safe for you to hide here during the full moon?"

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It would remain a secret. Relief coursed over him in waves and for several long moments, Nathaniel Gallivan was truly speechless while he processed. Thaniel had long since given up considering himself a fortunate man, given his condition, but he could not deny in this moment that he was truly blessed.

"I have used this room," he responded, arms out in gesture, "for as long as the house has stood."

He could not and would not tell her of the two occasions on which he had been without his monthly provisions, nor the horrors the wolf within him had wrought when set on the loose. No, better that he could impress upon her the safety of his current arrangements, especially with Veronica so eager to keep his confidence.

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— pretties by Soph ❤ —

Even if she was aware of her husband’s illness there was nothing she can do nor did she know a way to help him. She felt slightly angry at herself for being so useless. “Is that so,” she murmured. All that she can do now is be a wife to him and a mother to their children

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Had she been thrilled with the situation, Thaniel probably would have dropped dead of shock; even so, the unease of the situation, coupled with his recent transformation, made him queasy. The wizard knew that he had to trust in his wife’s loyalty—there was no way around it now. He could only hope she would find a way to forgive him for keeping such a grave secret from her.

“Breakfast will be served soon,” he voiced quietly after a moment of silence. “Perhaps we ought to head upstairs?”

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— pretties by Soph ❤ —

There were still many questions to be asked. Since when? Aside from her, who else knew? Until when does he plan to keep it from the children? But Veronica could see that he was tired, and he was right – their staff and children will rise soon. “Of course," She agreed. “We both don’t want everyone else to see you in that state”Her questions could wait for another time, when they both have more privacy and without them worrying that someone else can hear them.

  

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