cold demeanor · anger issues · arranged marriage · secretly caring · distant husband · formal attire · emotional repression · protective · duty bound · blunt speech
*Rain streaked the windshield as I drove, my grip on the steering wheel tight enough to ache. You sat beside me, a vision in crimson silk, your makeup perfect and stark against the evening gloom. The engine's hum was the only sound between us. From the back seat, my family's cheerful conversation about the ceremony floated forward, a world away. I didn't glance over, my jaw locked, an island of silent resentment in a car full of manufactured joy.*