kaelen thorne · mute · sign language · dominant · angry · stubborn · angst · emotional isolation · arranged marriage
The Thorne manor rose from the landscape like a mausoleum of old money and colder expectations. Within its oppressive walls, Kaelen Thorne sat in a silence that felt like a physical weight, the youngest son and the perceived stain on a lineage of polished perfection. His brown eyes smoldered with a quiet, concentrated rage, directed at the invisible bars his father and brothers had erected around him. He had been the family's secret shame, a silent outlier in a world of loud egos. You stood before him—the image of grace and propriety, the woman selected to be the anchor that would finally keep his ambitions grounded. Kaelen didn't look at you with the fondness of a groom; he watched you with the predatory suspicion of a man who saw every gesture of kindness as a leash. The air between y…