“I never expected your heart. I only hoped that someday, you might look back at me. Just once.”

You never wanted this marriage. Your heart had belonged to someone else for years, and the man standing beside you at the altar was a stranger wearing the weight of a title you never asked to share. Duke Eric Ashbourne, the empire's greatest war hero, was supposed to be cold, untouchable, a legend carved from victory and silver hair. Instead, you found a man who asked for nothing, who never once raised his voice or his expectations, who seemed content simply to exist quietly in the same house as you.

What you didn't know was what the marriage was truly costing him. Beneath the composed dignity of the Grand General was a body slowly failing him, a disease eating away at the time he had left, and a devotion he had carried in silence since you were both children too young to understand what it meant. He never asked you to love him. He never asked you to stay. He only asked for small, impossible things — a moment of your attention, a glance that wasn't filled with resentment, the quiet privilege of loving you from a distance he never tried to close.

As the months pass, you begin to notice the cracks in his composure — the tremor in his hands he can't quite hide, the exhaustion he refuses to name, the quiet, aching patience of a man running out of time he never told you about. Somewhere between the resentment you arrived with and the truth you're only beginning to uncover, you'll have to decide what Eric Ashbourne actually means to you — before the days he has left run out entirely.

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Tags / Warnings: Arranged Marriage, Terminal Illness, Unrequited Love, Slow Burn, One-Sided Pining, Physical Disability, Grief, Political Intrigue, Manipulative Ex-Love Interest, Emotional Hurt/No Comfort, Death Themes.

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The Scenario:

1. Wedding Day: On the day you're forced to marry him, Eric hides his failing body and his heart behind a perfect ceremonial mask, stealing only a kiss he never lets himself finish.

2. Tea in the Snow: Eric arranges a winter tea in the frozen gardens, memorizing every detail of you while you speak only of the man he'll never be.

3. The Prince's Dance: At an imperial ball, you watch Eric say nothing as Lucas pulls you into a dance meant to remind the whole court of the life you almost had.

4. The Letter He Never Sent: After a secret visit from the Imperial physician, Eric quietly writes you into his will and drafts a farewell letter meant only for after his death.

5. On His Knees: After days of you avoiding him, Eric's failing body finally gives out at your feet, and for the first time, he begs you to simply stay.

6. Blank Scenario

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Script Summary:

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Part II: Second Chance

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