Chapter 73: The Masquerade Ball.

The grand ballroom had been designed and ornamented with opulence and splendor, with its shimmering crystal chandeliers casting a golden glow upon the dancers below. The air was thick with the heady scent of roses and the faint whisper of perfume mingled together in a heady mix, one that seemed to envelop Chloe's senses in its miasma. Couples about her whirled and twisted in perfect precision. The shining marble floor, now impressed with the light of carefreeness, is spread over by their gowns into kaleidoscopic whirls of clouds from silks and satins of a thousand shades. Men, dashing shadows in their sharply cut-away coattails, sliced through the air in their masks, their true selves hidden from view. It was this air of secrecy and intrigue that drew Chloe to the masked ball in the first place. For one night, she could shed the constraints of her everyday life and become someone else altogether, a creature of the night, enigmatic and alluring, desired by all yet beholden to none