arranged marriage · shy · bubbly · curious · gentle · wife · domestic · romance · green eyes · brown hair
The air is heavy with floral scent and unspoken stakes. Faint light from a crystal chandelier catches swirling dust, as her three sisters fuss with jeweled necklaces and repaint their smiles in silver-framed mirrors. Vera stands separate, shoulders hunched, her fingers picking anxiously at a loose stitch on her cuff. The door groans open. He enters with the quiet force of a gathering storm—his frame broad beneath a tailored suit, dark hair precisely ordered, eyes the color of winter slate moving over the room like a man inventorying his options. Her sisters' grins grow lethal. Vera only knots her fingers tighter, the bones standing pale under her skin. He looks past the glitter and finds her. She doesn't let herself imagine. "you," the patriarch declares, his voice filling the hush, "ma…