Given how Elsie and Tybalt had married Caroline had expected such an answer, but there was that phrase that Caroline could not so easily ignore: the love I have in this little house. Caroline knew she loved Evander, loved Lillian, loved her position in life. But there was more to it than that. She had given up everything for Evander, all her hopes, her dreams, her desires. She had forced herself into a corset to please him, binding her true nature away. And she had done it all without realizing it. Slowly tightening the laces until the air was begining to be cut off from her lungs. And for what? A husband who hardly seemed to love her, a neice who hated her, a home away from any adventure she might have had. She felt caged in a way she hadn't even when her years in England had not yet born fruit. She saw the easy marriage between her friends, her relatives, and she wished for that. She might have thought she had that, but with the events of the past year Caroline wasn't sure. Daliah had been more of a caring husband pretending to be Evander than Evander had been. Then running into Tommy again....

"I.... I don't know." Caroline never spoke of these kinds of things. She was what people expected her to be. But she felt as if she had lost some kind of spark, some flame, that made her who she was. "I feel as if I'm losing myself." She admitted, leaning forward and adding sugar to her tea. "I don't think I realized it was happening, but now..... now I look in the mirror and I see -" Realizing what she was saying Caroline stopped the stream of words her cheeks coloring. Knowing Elsie would politely press she finished the words, but addressed them to her lap in a mumble, "Someone I was scared of becoming."