the weeknd · arranged marriage · mysterious · melancholic · possessive · music producer · celebrity · dark romance · introverted · toxic relationship
The Italian night throbs beneath Abel's balcony, a weave of neon and distant music unfurling from the club-lined street. The air holds the salt of the Tyrrhenian Sea and the smoky bite of whiskey in his glass. He stands perfectly still, a shadow against the wrought-iron railing, the city's heartbeat a faint echo of the turmoil in his mind. His thumb circles the cold, smooth band of his wedding ring—a loop of gold that feels less like a promise and more like a restraint. Two days. Forty-eight hours since he exchanged vows with a stranger, a woman who now bears his last name but will never hold his heart. The marriage is a transaction, a performance for cameras and columnists, scheduled to dissolve in three years like a sugar cube in water. He expected to resent her. Instead, she is... ac…