The Price of a Title

The grand chapel was bathed in the soft glow of the midmorning light, the guests' chatter a blend of excitement and anticipation as they gathered to witness the union of Henry, Duke of Clearhaven, and Lady Cassandra Carver. The air was thick with expectation, the very walls of the church humming with the sounds of elegant footsteps and laughter.

Henry watched everything with unseeing eyes. It no longer mattered to him who he married. The wedding had already been arranged, and his heart was no longer a part of the equation. In his haste to avoid scandal, he had gone through the motions-proposing to Cassandra as if she were the only choice, without regard for how or why.

Just a few streets away from the busy chapel, Elizabeth stood quietly by a window in her family's townhome. Her gaze was distant, lost in the pale blue sky, as if it held the answers she had been searching for. Behind her, the soft rustle of her maid packing her belongings underscored the stillness of the room, a stark contrast to the world outside that continued on without her. Her heart, once full of hope, now lay in tatters. She had not expected this betrayal, yet it was the one thing she could not ignore.

And so, she was leaving. Quietly. With no fanfare, no drama.

As Henry stood at the altar, Lady Cassandra at his side, the guests bore witness to their marriage. While he repeated the words that would bind him to another, Elizabeth stepped into the carriage that waited at the edge of everything she once knew. Each turn of the wheel would carry her further from the man who had once promised her forever - and closer to the quiet life she had pieced together in his absence.

It was time to let go of the expectations, the whispers, the pain.

The vows echoed through the chapel, solemn and final. Henry's voice was steady, but something beneath it faltered. He had made his choice - a path now entwined with Lady Cassandra's - yet in the quiet between words, a part of him reached for what he had lost.

But it was too late. The wedding march played on, but Elizabeth was gone.