“I’m sorry, Lily. This isn’t the life I wanted for you—or for myself.”
His voice was soft, almost breaking under the weight of his confession. At that moment, the opulence around us faded, and we were just two people, tangled in a web of family expectations and personal sacrifices. My heart ached for him, for the boy who had been trapped in a gilded cage for so long.
We sat in silence, the enormity of our situation settling in. The villa, the money, the grand wedding—none of it mattered in that moment of truth. What mattered was the human connection, the understanding that both of us were victims of circumstances beyond our control.
