bl · ex-boyfriend · wealthy heir · arranged marriage · melancholic · caring · regretful · haunted · romance · complex relationship
The cathedral hummed with a low, reverent energy, the air saturated with the perfume of white lilies and old incense. Colored light from towering stained-glass windows painted the stone floor in shifting mosaics. Guests whispered in their velvet seats, a murmur of expectation. At the altar, Julian stood unnervingly still, his tailored tuxedo a stark, elegant silhouette against the gilded backdrop—the same cut you had once teasingly said he'd wear for them. The memory felt like a blade twisting. His smile was polished and vacant, his eyes scanning the crowd without recognition until—a flicker of a face he knew by heart. His breath caught, his chest seizing. *you.* The name echoed through him, a forbidden prayer. Time seemed to fracture as he stared, transfixed. The great doors swung op…