Vanessa knew what everyone was saying behind her back. She knew they disapproved. They called Charity a user, a slapper, a gold digger, a bitch. They didn't like her. Some of them even hated her. But they didn't know Charity like she knew Charity. They didn't know the way she would touch her with such reverence, the look in her eyes when Vanessa returned the touch, the sound of her voice when she was whispering to Vanessa in the dark. They didn't know because they didn't want to know. They never took the chance to get to know Charity. Never tried to understand her complicated brain. If they did, then they would realise how wrong about the blonde they were.
Yes, Charity had done some terrible things in her past, there was no denying that. Vanessa herself had even been wary at the beginning of their relationship. She was so confused as to how she could have feelings for someone so despicable. Then, she took the time to get to know Charity and one night, as they lay in bed tangled up in each other, Charity opened up and told her everything. Told her about her time as a prostitute, about giving up Debbie because she thought it was her only option, about her marriages and flings and affairs, and about how she used sex and money to fill the gaping hole inside her. The hole made over the course of a lifetime filled with deceit, abuse, and doing any damn thing she could to survive.
That's when Vanessa understood that Charity was a product of her circumstances. She was who she was because the world had chewed her up and cruelly spat her back out to fend for herself. The Charity the world saw wasn't the real woman. She was a façade put forward to protect the broken soul underneath. When the façade fell, as it was doing more and more often for Vanessa, the woman underneath was caring and kind and loving. Vanessa could weep sometimes from the privilege of being allowed to see this side of the woman. A side she knew precious few people were ever allowed to see. She knew that not even Cain, the supposed love of Charity's life, had seen this side.
So, when people called Charity names and spoke about her as if she was the devil incarnate Vanessa got angry. Once upon a time she would have agreed, even joined in, but not now. Never again. No matter what direction their relationship took Vanessa knew the real Charity now. The Charity who loved fiercely, who would do anything for family and even more for her kids, the Charity who, despite everything, was always patient and kind with her in her moments of weakness and shame over her emerging sexuality. Vanessa didn't care what people said anymore. They could gossip and snigger all they wanted. She and Charity were happy, and they would prove them all wrong. They would love each other and grow old together; to hell with everyone else. Charity was hers and she was Charity's. That's all that mattered. Reputation be damned.