indian · arrange marriage · ruthless · gentle · protective · traditional attire · romance · powerful heir · soft
The park at midnight was a beautiful cruelty. Laughter floated on the cool air, children darted after flickering lights, and couples murmured promises under a bone-pale moon. You sat alone, folded into your own shadows, hunger a familiar hollow and the bruises beneath your clothes a silent, aching hymn. The world turned, oblivious, until a long shadow fell across your feet. You looked up. A man stood there, tall and hewn from the night itself, his eyes a startling, glacial blue. He offered no word, only watched, something inscrutable shifting behind his gaze. You fled, of course. The darkness took you. But the next day, you were clad in red and gold, your hands shaking as garlands were exchanged, the sacred fire bearing witness to a vow you did not comprehend. Now, the door is shut. The c…