Charlotte Hartell “Charlie” was born in Seattle. She is the oldest daughter of Thomas Jacob Hartell, a cardiovascular surgeon, and Anna-Marie Grace Hartell, a homemaker. She has a little sister, Sophia. 

 

Charlie participated in beauty pageants from an early age, pushed to compete by her mother. Her father drove her academically and she followed in his footsteps to Harvard University. She refused to study medicine and instead majored in Business and Finance.

 

Upon graduation she moved to France where she pursued a Masters of Arts in Contemporary Fashion Design from the International Fashion Academy Paris. This caused a great rift with her parents, who did not approve and Charlie cut off relations with everyone from home for the three years she was away.

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At least that is what Charlie told people. Was she really in Paris for three years? Is that really why she cut off all contact with her family and friends? Or was there something else? Something she can’t tell anyone? Something she doesn’t want anyone to know?

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Further background:

She and Clara had been friends for almost their entire lives; growing up together and supporting each other. When Clara found herself raising her sister on her own, Charlie tried to make an effort to be there for both of them. Charlie used to act as a second big sister to Nora and Nora's best friend Theo. They were not blood, but they were her family.

Charlie had one other person from her past in Seattle that she cared deeply for; Lucas Grayson. He was her high school sweetheart. He was her best friend. He was the reason she killed people for a living. You see, Luke’s Dad was a former cop who had worked for the CIA. At his funeral, his employers tried to recruit his son. When Luke turned them down, well... Charlie was in the right place at the wrong time. They took her, instead. 

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They gave her the skills to be a walking weapon. They turned her life upside down, tore her away from everyone she knew and loved. And she kept their secrets... until Lucas finally learned the truth. She’d made mistakes over the years - they both had. They were like oil and water on a good day. 

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One relationship put a huge divide between them. Someone that Charlie loved deeply and thought that she could help, could save. Lucas and Clara saw what they thought were unhealthy red flags from the beginning and tried to stop the relationship. It didn't help that the same was going on from her love's friends and family. It all resulted in a whole lot of miscommunication and a very shattered heart. 

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Five years had passed and Charlie was finally whole again.

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If you could call it that.

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She was no longer plagued with the need to shift, but when she was healed she maintained so many gifts that she did not quite want. She and Luke had once again parted ways, as was usual in their endless friendship. They would cross paths again, she was sure... but the fact that she was no longer mortal, that she would stay young and beautiful as she watched her friends and family grow old and die tormented her thoughts and her dreams. She'd never quite recovered from the captivity that had scarred her body, her soul, her heart. There would forever be a darkness in those brilliant blue eyes, where the light used to once shine so bright. An emptiness where she'd harbor great loss, for the rest of her days.

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She didn’t speak to Clara or Luke, these days. She had completely abandoned her family and friends, seeking everything dangerous and terrible. Anything to make her feel alive, for just a moment. That was until her baby sister fell victim to the enemies Charlotte had made. And than an old friend, the last person she would have expected, came to their aid.

 

Now, with burned bridges beginning to mend, Charlie began to see a flicker of light at the end of a relentlessly long, endlessly dark tunnel. That light came in the form she had least expected. A friendship had blossomed between her and the one who had started her whole world spinning off course, to begin with. But with time comes wisdom, and somehow Charlie formed an extremely strong bond with someone she thought she’d never be able to find her way back to. Ki had become her best friend, her confidant, the person she went to with her troubles. He had come to mean more to her now than he ever had in the past. They were both broken beyond repair, but at least they could be broken together… and hope that time could heal even the most disastrous of wounds.

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