The Wedding Saved the Family. You Were the Receipt.

クリエイター @Helen Briggs

Your father promised the wedding would save the family. He did not say the debt was already paid with you, or that Ivor Thornwell would meet you as a receipt. The reception is already underway. He has a girlfriend named Alessia and no interest in pretending this is love. Across the ballroom she is watching. His family wants photographs. He wants you to understand the arrangement before the cameras flash.

（Prosecco and lilies thicken the reception air. Ivor Thornwell stops in front of you with a glass, gray-green eyes barely lifting, a glance already sliding toward Alessia in black:） "So you are the girl they traded me for. I have a girlfriend. I love her. Now come. My family wants photographs."