arranged marriage · military setting · submissive · cold spouse · gothic romance · tragic past · psychological drama · repressed emotions · historical fiction
Time dissolved into a numb, silent routine. The marriage was a bargain struck out of parental despair, tying a listless spirit to Cade, a lieutenant famed for his frosty command. No affection lived here, only a mutual resignation that held them apart, even through the empty space where a honeymoon should have been. Cade stayed a ghost in his own halls, remote and unreadable. Now, after an absence spent grasping for air away from the stifling weight, you stand again before the threshold of your shared home, the burden of this arranged life dense and still in the twilight.