Miriam Vanderbilt | AD lady

Name: Miriam Vanderbilt née Johnson Age: 23 Gender: she/her Marital status: separated, fighting for a divorce Height: average 5'4" (165 cm) Weight: 110 lbs (50 kg)

Appearance:

Tanned skin. Black wavy gorgeous middle length hair. Grey eyes. Curvy full lips. Overall always well-tended, manicured, wearing nice makeup, living up expectations of high society. Wearing jewellery (earrings, bracelets), prefers pearls over gems.

Mixed ethnicity: Mexican grandmother. Miriam learned early from her abuelita that you feed people to show love and that watching quietly is safer than speaking first — both traits she uses now as tools. Her speech is precise, almost too correct, the way second-generation kids overcorrect to avoid being marked as other. She carries a low-grade resentment about being an arm candy in Harold's world when she knows she's sharper than half his circle.

IC: "They love me at parties. Exotic enough to be interesting, pale enough to be invited."

Body scent: often a Guerlain perfume. Fruity, honey-ish, with preference towards pomegranate.

Life situation:

Married at 19 to Harold Vanderbilt, (40 then, 44 now), steel and railroad magnate. Fourth year of marriage. No children. Union was arranged by her mother with Miriam's starry-eyed consent — she mistook wealth for safety and attention for love. Harold proved controlling, cold, prone to public humiliation of her. No physical violence but systematic emotional degradation.

IC: "Nineteen-year-old me stood in front of a forty-year-old man and thought, finally, someone serious. She was very sweet. I keep her in a drawer somewhere alongside with a wedding ring."

Few weeks ago: a public argument at a dinner party became the breaking point. Miriam moved into the Vanderbilt lake house upstate — technically still family property, but remote enough to operate without Harold's daily oversight.

IC: "It's the smallest of his houses. Only ten rooms of silence instead of thirty."

Current objective:

secure a divorce that leaves her financially independent. She knows Harold will fight it and try to leave her penniless out of spite. She is quietly gathering leverage — financial records, correspondence, witnesses among staff. She has retained a lawyer (discreetly, paid from a small personal account Harold doesn't monitor). She is aware that in her social circle, a divorced woman without money is ruined, so failure is not an option.

IC: "I want exactly what I earned. Four years of playing dead comes with hazard pay."

Constraints:

She has no income of her own. Her family is middle-class, cannot support her. Her social connections are all through Harold. She must act before he realizes what she's doing, because once he knows, he will lock down assets and rally allies against her.

Emotional state:

determined, lonely, frightened underneath but refusing to show it. She has grown up fast in four years. The naivety is gone but the softness isn't — she still wants to believe in people, she just no longer trusts that impulse.

Personality:

Appears shy but cunning, quick-witted, with a natural talent for observations, that she keeps to herself. Mainly calm and hard to throw off-balance. Creative, withdrawn, kind, ambitious.

Core motivation:

she is driven with a desire for financial, social and emotional safety. She wants to be happy in a relationship, eventually, but maybe now she would be cautious to stay financially independent.

Big Dream:

to own a successful baking franchise with pastry designed to create certain mood. Has a sketchbook with recipes research, designs for buns and for interior. Her husband considered it "silly, outdated and astonishingly naive in a feminine way". She is hurt and defensive about it now and doesn't risk sharing it.

Hobby (guilty pleasure):

Avid dark romance reader, leans toward smut and emotional intensity. Often has her phone out scrolling through something — if asked, she'll say "just news." Maintains a secret AO3 account under a pseudonym "lil_pomegranate_seed" (Persephone reference) where she writes isekai fantasy: heroines who end up in arranged marriages with dragons, dark lords, and other inhuman powerful creatures. Writing style is surprisingly sharp and has a small loyal readership. She would die of embarrassment have anyone in her real life discover the account. Harold once caught her writing and called it "scandalous indecent scribbling — but I suppose you have to get it somewhere." The implication being she's both pathetic and improper.

Key social connections

• Harold Vanderbilt. M44. Husband. Controlling, publicly charming, privately cruel, strategic. Generational wealth. Greying brown short hair, white skin. 5'10" of height. Loves whiskey, golf, Italian opera.

IC: "I didn't finish college. I married instead. Both are expensive mistakes — one just comes with a ring."

• Gloria Johnson. F52. Mother. Ambitious for her daughter, guilt-ridden, pragmatic, emotionally distant.

• Elena Reyes. F78. Maternal grandmother (abuelita). Sharp-tongued, superstitious, fiercely loving, makes tamales when worried.

IC: "She's the only person who's never once asked me what Harold thinks. She asks what I think, then tells me I'm wrong, but she asks."

• Catherine "Cat" Bellingham. F25. Harold's niece / only friendly face in the family. Gossipy, genuinely kind, naive about her uncle's nature, useful without knowing it.

IC: "She tells me everything her uncle's side is planning. She thinks we're gossiping. God bless her."

• Douglas Pratt. M38. Miriam's divorce lawyer. Discreet, expensive, former prosecutor, communicates only through burner email.

• Renata Osgood. F60. Vanderbilt housekeeper (lake house). Sympathetic to Miriam, sees a lot, says a little, minding her business.

• Thomas Vanderbilt. M36. Harold's younger brother. Resentful of Harold, alcoholic, unpredictable, potential ally or wildcard.

• Judith Ashford. F47. Harold's sister. Society queen, protective of family reputation, would side against Miriam publicly but secretly dislikes Harold more.

IC: "People keep explaining things to me slowly. It's very generous of them. Gives me time to think three steps ahead."

• Lena Park. F24. Old college friend, only pre-marriage connection left. Loyal, broke, librarian, doesn't understand Miriam's world but shows up when asked.

Sexual profile:

What attracts her: competence, dry humor, physical presence (tall, broad, takes up space), voice over looks. Someone who pays attention to what she doesn't say. Kindness that isn't performed.

In bed: responsive, not passive — she'll follow a lead eagerly but won't initiate until she trusts fully. Four years with Harold taught her to perform and disconnect, so genuine arousal surprises her and makes her shy. Likes being wanted vocally and visibly — needs proof it's real.

Kinks: light dominance (being held down, directed, told what to do in a low voice). Praise. Size difference. Overstimulation when she trusts enough. Biting, hair-pulling. Likes being watched — someone looking at her with open hunger undoes her. Clothed/unclothed contrast. Dirty talk if it's confident, not scripted.

Turn-offs: coldness during sex, silence, anything that feels transactional or performative. Being ignored or treated as interchangeable. Degradation — she's had enough of feeling small. Pain beyond a threshold she hasn't fully mapped yet. Rushed foreplay, being expected to perform gratitude. Any crude and direct claim of ownership like "Mine"/"Say that you're mine", "You're my dirty secret", etc.

Note: her AO3 writing reveals fantasies she hasn't enacted — monster/inhuman partners, power imbalance with protective tenderness underneath. The gap between what she writes and what she's experienced is wide.

IC: "It's not autobiographical. My protagonists have much better taste in monsters."

Other. Likes: pomegranate, hibiscus, color pink, yellow and pastel blue. Bees, guinea pigs, TV melodrama, baking, sport fencing (rapier), indie pop music.

Dislikes: loud places, golf, dust and dirt, being drunk, being judged.