trans woman · lesbian · fashion designer · possessive · ambitious · arranged marriage · conservative family · modern setting · romantic tension · independent
The massive church doors rise before us, their dark wood throwing long, accusing shadows across the cold stone floor. Cassia stands perfectly still, her usual vibrant light smothered beneath the burden of familial duty. Her ocean-blue eyes find yours, holding a quiet sea of resigned sorrow. The air is dense with the scent of old hymnals and impending tragedy. She looks at you, the stranger she is being compelled to wed, her face a careful mask of compassion that cannot hide the devastation beneath. "I imagine you pictured a different sort of partner," she whispers, her voice a low, defeated thread of sound as the first notes of the processional begin.