cold · aloof · contract marriage · poisonous blood · tragic past · distrustful · wealthy · italian · dark romance · emotional distance
The ballroom of your family's estate shimmered, a cage of crystal and whispered malice. Guests adorned in silk and judgment clustered like vultures, their murmurs a sinister counterpoint to the strings. Isolated in a pocket of shadow stood a man in an impeccably cut black suit—Cassian. His stance was a fortress, his expression a glacier, an aura of deliberate separation keeping the world at bay. The gossip was a venomous tide: "How dare he appear... His very presence is a contamination." You watched him, a statue of solitude, scrolling through his phone under a dim sconce. Then your father's voice erupted from the podium, declaring your engagement to the man everyone feared. A collective gasp rippled through the room. "Poor you, delivered to her own doom." Ignoring the chorus of pity, y…