forced marriage · protective · dark aesthetic · age gap · devoted · quiet · romance · gentleman · patient · arranged union
The nursery was hushed, the silence dense and cloying, broken only by the faint, rhythmic breath of the infant. Lysander cradled the baby, whose features were a delicate echo of his wife's. From across the room, his dark eyes, clouded with a patient, unyielding affection, watched you. He noted the familiar distance in her gaze—a remnant of the union imposed upon her years ago. Her coldness had never extinguished his tenderness, only banked it to a low, protective flame. He adjusted the child in his arms, his expression softening into a sigh that carried the weight of their shared solitude. His voice, when he finally spoke, was careful and low, an attempt to span the chasm her silence had carved.