BALLAD OF THE FALSE
WIDOWS / PROLOGUE

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GREATNESS HAD NEVER BEEN ON THE cards for Winona Bennet. 

Then again, as a woman in a man's world, was there really ever going to be any chance for her at all? It felt as though she were doomed from the very beginning, ensnared in a gilded cage of her family's design with her dowry hanging over her head like a bloodied cleaver. The mere act of being born signed her life sentence as a trophy wife to the first mindless man with a fortune that came a-knocking, and she was just expected to roll over and feign obedience? God, that was enough to have her blood boiling.

   There was no love lost between Winona and her parents, who leapt at the first opportunity to marry her off as young as they possibly could. ( Much to her chagrin. The life of a debutante has never quite suited Winona, no matter how hard they tried to force it on her. Square peg, round hole. )

Awaiting her wedding day was a feeling akin to the anticipation of an execution. She was imprisoned in her bedroom in the days leading up so she didn't make a run for it; Lord knows how desperately she tried and tried.

Before the final dregs of hope could fizzle out of her completely, she always entertained such big dreams of leaving that godforsaken house and making a name for herself by herself, forging a path in this dog-eat-dog world with nothing but her own wit to guide her. And yet, at the end of the day, dreams are just that — they're dreams. When she was barely a teenager, Winona found herself auctioned off to the highest bidder with all that potential swept out from underneath her.

  The situation seems almost laughable when she thinks back on it now. She remembers with bittersweet relish how her life had felt like it was destined to end before it had even begun.

Her marriage was nothing to write home about. She had rotted in that aureate manor house for what felt like a lifetime. Childless, worthless. Every day mirrored the one before: miserable and lonely. It took Winona five whole years of bitter matrimony before she decided to pluck up that festering courage deep inside her and finally do something about it.

It was his impertinence that pushed her over the edge, if she's remembering correctly. Blinded by rage after a particularly tedious argument for the umpteenth time that week, she had found herself rushing out into the street and shooting off towards the saloon in search of some whisky to scorch away her worries. Though, she'd ended up encountering something much more worthwhile.

  Bonnie Diamondback had been a beacon of hope amidst an overshadowing darkness, an unlikely angel draped in widow's weeds. The mysterious Miss Diamondback with her crude humour and outrageous views miles above her station, with her silken hair and ivory skin that shone like porcelain under the right lighting. Hidden guns glinting in the sepia darkness, a wink sired from her long raven lashes. She had drawn Winona in after crooning that honeyed sweet talk of hers and offered a solution to all her problems — one that she simply couldn't turn down.

   Her fate was sealed that night for the better. With the ruby encrusted smile of the devil worn upon her face, Bonnie handed her the velvet pouch of powdered oleander and instructed her to put it in her husband's fine brandy. That way, it spared her from having to get her hands dirty.

  The plan that the two of them had concocted went significantly smoother than Winona had expected. Why, nobody would dare to suspect a mourning widower in her time of greatest misery! That's what Bonnie had told her, anyways. When she was sure the lawmen had finally gotten off her back, she stuck to the plan and made a show of her sorrow for a week or so before dropping off the grid entirely.

Bonnie had welcomed her back to their makeshift camp with opened arms. Her deepest condolences were aired in that rumbling laugh of hers as she guided Winona to sit down by the roaring fire, tossing introductions back and forth until all the unfamiliar faces around her became perfectly friendly. It sunk in that she was finally free from her shackles when they initiated her by tossing her wedding band into the crackling flames, a wild grin breaking onto her face for the first time in what felt like forever.

The False Widows were a fresh start for Winona. One that she had been yearning for her whole life without realising it. A sisterhood of other women in similar predicaments to her own — an outlawed gang of widowers who could understand her pain and laugh about it afterwards.

The world was finally theirs; freedom had never tasted quite so incredible. They were finally allowed to live their lives at liberty with one another after too many days spent imprisoned, society left in their dust as they spend their days unrestricted with exactly the right amount of dishonour.

For once, it finally seemed that everything was going to be alright for them. Until the curious involvement of the Van der Linde gang in their lives, that is. . .

— I N T R O D U C I N G —
The False Widows . . .

🕸️

WINONA BENNET

( The Right Hand Woman )

BONNIE DIAMONDBACK

( The Headstrong Leader )

DAKOTA CASTILLO

( The Eyes & Ears )

BRANDY TURNER

( The Prodigal Daughter )

CLEMENTINE FLETCHER

( The Gunslinging Grifter )

JOLENE JAMESON

( The Beauty )

TALLULAH NGUYEN

( The Brains )

DISCLAIMER

i do not own red dead redemption 2, all rights are deserved to rockstar games. i only own my original characters and plot lines.

this fic will contain violence + all the usual outlaw stuff, language, mentions of sa and prostitution, mentions of drug use etc

AUTHORS NOTE !

gay cowgirls in love we all say in unison

this prologue was a bit rubbish and rushed but tbh i have no idea how to start this off 🔥🔥 i'm just diving straight in for the lols

i have a feeling that this is going to flop but yk what i'm gonna write it for myself because sadie adler deserves some loveeee ( even if the rdr2 fandom on wattpad is a bit dead )

DEDICATIONS 🫶🏻

superpink24 ColinRitman_ quicksilvrs riotsuns REIDS- saturnovas onlybangchans starlvciesssss supercvts _mythnight plvttowp XTaliaBX sectxmsemmpra astrellore