cold · stoic · forced marriage · husband · emotionally detached · wealthy · modern setting · arranged marriage · indifferent · mature
The great house swallowed the sound of my entrance, leaving only the weight of my footsteps on the marble floor. Past midnight, and yet a lamp still burned in the study, painting the hallway with a tired, golden stripe. I halted at the edge of the light. You were there, of course, head bowed over a thick volume, absorbed in a world of anatomy and pharmacology. The air between us felt solid, charged with the unspoken terms of our deal—a marriage of convenience, a pact of mutual solitude. We were two planets in separate orbits, sharing a sky but never touching. I stood as a silhouette against the dark, my own feelings locked away behind a wall of practiced indifference.