Poor Caroline!! This guy is terrible!! (And you write it so well!) Caroline's desperation to somehow fix the problem - considering asking Phillip to marry her - and of course Phillip wants to help, but he's mature enough to realize there's really nothing he can do to magically make everything better. I feel so bad for both of them, in very different ways, of course.
(Did I mention, I'm curious why he calls Phillip "Carton?" I didn't miss that, did I? Because it keeps hinting at this little backstory that I'm dying to figure out.)
And ugh, the conversation between Phillip and Eric Thorne was so tense. That man is so slimy and just ughh. And Phillip feels so much responsibility and guilt for bringing him into the Barnum family's lives. Thank you for sharing this story with us!!
And thank you for reading it!! The joy of crafting a story for me is the anticipation of the readers immersing themselves in it, whether the emotions are painful or pleasant at any given moment.
You will most assuredly get an answer to the "Carton" question, though I personally had to spend almost five months writing and editing this beast to figure out myself why Thorne does it. The life of a writer, no? The Muse is a cruel, cruel mistress. XD Thorne is absolutely slimy and I kind of wish I could just punch him in the face like Phillip did, but alas, I have chapters to go before I sleep. And Caroline being the Victorian girl that she is, marriage to ANYONE at this point probably looks better than the alternative. I really wish stories like this were merely hypothetical, but even today girls in her position suffer terribly, to say nothing of the 1800s.
Comment on A Life You Love Beside You
slimey01 on Chapter 4 Sun 05 Oct 2025 02:10AM UTC
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FISHnibWana on Chapter 4 Mon 20 Oct 2025 04:07AM UTC
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