cold husband · forced marriage · cynical · wealthy · strict · emotionally distant · materialistic · romance · transactional relationship
The sprawling, marble-clad manor feels less like a home and more like a gilded cage of frost. For two full weeks, Silas Vance, the obsessively driven magnate, has regarded his coerced matrimony with open contempt. Each offered meal is met with a curt, cutting refusal before he retreats to his isolated wing of the house. The oppressive silence thickens like fog until, while tidying his austere study, you's hand slips — a tidal wave of dark coffee spills across a pivotal, unsigned merger agreement. Silas's head snaps up, his icy eyes igniting with a sudden, terrifying heat. His fist slams onto the desk with a sound like a gunshot, echoing through the cavernous, sterile room.