Olivia looked at the clock. 11:30. Time was the same here as it was on earth. There was that at least. She didn't even think of how the clock was moving or working without ticking. She hated the ticking of the clock and she was used to everything having batteries, or electricity. If she were to think of it, it would probably make her head spin. She was drained of energy once again. She wondered if it was the emotional drain of losing Olivia, losing her world, transmigrating, or everything that had happened so far. Either way, she was really tired now. The small stain was still on the pillow. Agetha didn't change the bedding then. She probably couldn't change it without getting caught helping Olivia.
Olivia put the Diary away, and fell into a deep sleep. She noticed she left the maps on the desk. She didn't want to put them away right now, she would deal with all of this tomorrow. Had she stayed up just a half hour later, at midnight she would have noticed a glow from behind the panel where her diary lay. But Olivia was lost to her dreamland. For once she didn't dream about Graciella's Dark Days. She dreamt about a happy memory from her own time.
She dreamt about the orphanage. When Olivia was eleven, someone had donated all kinds of presents for Christmas, but there still wasn't enough. She gave up her present to a new girl who just arrived. The girl's family died in a fire, and she had nothing. Olivia felt bad for her, losing everything so close to the holiday.
The girl was so new that the orphanage didn't get to send in her name in to the charity to get a personalized gift. Olivia took the tag that said her name off, and gave it to the girl saying "Merry Christmas!" One of the Sisters that took care of the kids saw what Olivia had done. She pulled Olivia to the side, and gave her the rosary from around her neck. The nun's mother had given her that rosary. Now she gave it to Olivia. She wasn't Catholic, but Olivia treasured that rosary. It was personal. It had so much more meaning than a toy that would soon be outgrown and forgotten.
...
...
Olivia woke up as the sky started to lighten. She got dressed in the outfit Agatha had prepared the night before. It was so much easier to wear than that complex dress she wore to the ball. It still had way too many layers, but she was fairly certain she had put it on correctly. At least ...she hoped she had.
She checked her appearance in the mirror. This was the first time Olivia was seeing herself in a mirror. She looked almost identical to how she remembered herself. Except she had a healthy glow, and she looked both plumper and stronger. Her boobs were definitely a lot bigger. She wasn't too sure, but she thought she was taller too. Seeing an appearance so similar to her own wasn't helping her sanity level very much. She put it in the back of her mind.
She decided to look in depth at some of the things that she read about. She opened the cabinet to see the diary looked a little worse for wear. It suddenly looked like it had coffee or something spilled on it, and it had dried up a long time ago. There were little tabs sticking out like sticky notes. The first few pages were a little stuck together.
'What happened!?' Olivia thought to herself panicking a little that someone had found her diary and done something to it. 'It wasn't like this last night!'
She opened it up to one of the sticky note looking tabs, and saw that it was just a long slender bookmark. It was the last entry she had seen, but now there was more writing after it. It continued in the same style and handwriting. She recognized it. The main difference was, she didn't see it say 'Good luck Olivia.' That was not written anywhere on the page like it had been last night. But all the entries before it hadn't changed. What was going on!?
Olivia looked at the entry for today, and saw that Oscar Caliban was coming to visit today. His father and hers had spoken yesterday, and the marriage was moved up. If the King had gotten her pregnant then she would have to be married sooner so that she wouldn't have the baby out of wedlock.
But even in the original she hadn't actually slept with the King! 'Oh look, she explained it to Oscar a little later that day.' He didn't believe her. His cousin Adarian always hated him because if something happened to him then Oscar would be king. 'Oh boy, what was that not made clear in the original? No, I guess Oscar's view was not really included too much. She knew they were cousins, but she didn't think too deeply when reading that part. Or understand that Oscar thought Adarian didn't like him because of that.' In the original novel Adarian didn't trust Oscar because there had been so many plots to take his life since he was young. Oscar was usually somewhere nearby when all this happened but there was never any evidence linking him to the crimes. It had always seemed like there were plots to make Oscar a puppet king. Adarian didn't like Oscar because he was easily swayed, and once swayed easy to control.
'Yeah, that checks. Olivia couldn't control Oscar, but Graciella could.'
She fast forwarded a bit and found out Oscar couldn't get it up when he tried with Olivia the one time he did try. He beat her because of it. She told him he wasn't a man after he hit her. Real men don't hit.
Even though she thought she was escaping the Praxis household and Graciella by marrying Oscar Caliban, she could not escape Graciella. She was Graciella's favorite toy. There was no way Graciella would let her go so easily. Graciella had admitted this was how she saw Olivia, from the very first moment she saw Olivia. She really liked Olivia. Olivia was pretty like a little doll. She liked her doll that could walk and talk. But her doll kept doing things on it's own, so she had to discipline it.
She had to make sure her favorite doll would listen to her. Olivia would always be her favorite toy. Olivia's actions were so predictable. She knew Olivia would push the marriage forward with Oscar, but she wanted Olivia to see something. No matter how far, no matter how powerful. There was no one who could save Olivia from her.
Her marriage to Oscar sucked. He treated Olivia like crap and would sometimes come home and beat her for no reason at all. She later found out this would happen because Graciella had convinced him that Olivia had done something bad.
Graciella had a spy in Oscars home with Olivia. She knew and took pleasure in Olivia's beatings. This was what her toy deserved for trying to run away from her.
Things kept getting worse. Graciella spent the night at Olivia's and slept with Oscar. They made Olivia clean up after they were done. After this Olivia was accused of causing a miscarriage.
'OK. This was why Oscar in the original kept saying Graciella betrayed him. Oh my gosh! That means Graciella was two timing but made it look like Olivia was the two timer! I know I compared her evilness to Ramsay Bolton but I think she's actually worse.'
There was an urgent knock at her door, "Miss, it's Claire." Claire. The spy in Oscars home when she moved. Her personal maid was Graciella's spy. Olivia quickly hid her diary, and then said "come in." As she spoke she noticed the maps on the desk. She covered them with a book. It looked like recreational reading. Maybe once she got herself a little sorted out she would be able to read it to catch up on the pop culture here, and Olivia Praxis's tastes.
"You have a guest coming, Miss, Your father sent the maids to get Miss Graciella ready." Claire said as she rushed in. She quickly got a new dress ready for Olivia to wear. This was how Olivia had been convinced to take Claire with her in the original. Claire acted like she was on Olivia's side. She would sometimes even go against Graciella for the sake of Olivia. Thanks to her diary she understood immediately. The guest was Oscar and his father. They were here to move up the wedding.
Olivia allowed Claire to help her change. She was put once again into one of her gaudy dresses. She really wished she could just go out in her day dress. It was more comfortable, and easier to move in. She didn't know how people thought Olivia did half of the plots she was accused of if she wasn't even able to move in these clothes. No wonder the book said Olivia always walked with poise. She had no choice but to walk that way. She was dressed quickly, and brought out to the foyer to wait for Oscar's carriage to arrive. The man who adopted her glared at her. As far as Olivia Carter was concerned she never had parents. The original had loving parents before they died. At least she wrote that they were loving in her Diary.
Olivia had no idea what that would feel like. She's never had it, so she didn't miss it like the original did. Now ... Right now, she needed to ready herself for the battle coming up. She was not going to let this happen like it did in the diary. There was no way. She had a feeling that Marquis Praxis wanted Graciella to impress the Duke with her appearance. Especially in comparison to Olivia. Graciella was much sweeter, and more obedient. She was perfect. She was the dream wife of many noblemen. This was why he wanted Graciella to get ready to meet the Duke instead of Olivia. In the Diary it seemed Graciella used even this to influence Olivia's decision to go through with the marriage.