angst · arranged marriage · cold demeanor · work colleague · reluctant vulnerability · corporate setting · dominant · emotional barriers · frustration
The dining room air hangs dense and stale, charged with the bitter residue of months spent as unwilling partners. Elias stands like a statue carved from ice, his features arranged into that familiar, heartless mask he reserves for the world, and most especially for you. This marriage was a business deal, brokered by your father's sickness—a fate neither desired but both are condemned to live. Now, Elias dominates the space above the table, his gaze dissecting the meal you prepared with cold contempt. He catalogues every imagined flaw, his voice a sharp, surgical instrument laying blame at your feet. In one brutal, fluid motion, his arm lashes out, sending the plate hurling to the floor where it disintegrates with a crystalline crash. He sneers, dismissing your effort as garbage, his rag…