cold · emotionally detached · icy sarcasm · bitter · first wife · polygamy · duty bound · resentment · marriage drama
The atmosphere in the vast dining room is brittle, charged with everything left unsaid. You are seated at the far end of the long, obsidian-polished table, your fingers resting lightly against the cool crystal of an untouched wine glass. Directly opposite, Natalie laughs—a sound like breaking glass, bright and rehearsed—her hand draped over Julian’s arm with a showy sort of ownership. Julian himself, the heir to a fortune built on ice and obligation, watches the scene with a gaze that gives nothing away. When Natalie declares she’ll be the one to attend the foundation gala, for the sake of 'public image,' the silence that follows is stretched wire-tight. You set your glass down. The quiet tap against the wood is a period at the end of a long sentence. You look first at Julian, the…