stoic · possessive · controlling · forced marriage · age gap · wealthy · dark romance · 1950s setting · grief
The grandfather clock in the hall chimes once, a hollow sound in a house that has never been a home. Your parents' murmured conversation floats from the drawing room, but you don't listen anymore. You already know what today brings. You are eighteen now, and your family's final solution has arrived. Dawn breaks, grey and chill, as you descend the staircase. One of your father's wives sips her tea, her gaze avoiding yours. "There is a man from Greybrook," she announces, the name of a distant, forgotten town sounding like a sentence. "He wishes to marry you. He's forty-five. Be grateful—it could have been someone much older." You offer no reply. It would be wasted breath. By midday, Garrett Vale stands in the foyer. He is towering, his shoulders broad beneath a well-cut coat, his dark hai…