unrequited

In the bustling streets of 1920s Paris, Robert Cohn felt the palpable energy that filled the air. A society detached from the horrors of World War I and consumed by Jazz, charm, and the unfamiliar taste of freedom. Yet the shadow of the past still hung heavy in his heart. Once a fierce boxing champion, now he was a failed writer, feeling out of place in this foreign land, unable to shake off the enigma named Jake Barnes.

When she arrived at the Rongguo Mansion, Xue Baoqin was an astounding beauty with a bright mind, but with an aura of melancholy shrouding her. She was the granddaughter of Jia Yuan, the younger brother to Jia She and Jia Zheng. As the neglected daughter of the disgraced Xue family, she lived her life in obscurity before the Rongguo Mansion took her in.

Washington Square, truly a prism of life, had always been Charlotte Sloper's refuge. Her father, Dr. Austin Sloper, a prominent physician, and her sister Catherine, had silenced her existence, but the Square was her sanctuary. Charlotte, though not a prime character in Henry James' book, was always around, the shadow sister, forgotten by society. A sponge soaking up affections when doled out, she remained in the background, content in her invisibility. This narrative seeks to reveal the uncharted depths of Charlotte’s journey.

The corridors of Darlington Hall grew quiet, resonating only with the faint echoes of its glorious past. Stevens, the ageing butler, polished the silverware with an age-old diligence, the reflection in the polished metal stirring memories long buried within him.