"He feels guilty every time he's drawn to you — you're his friend's partner."

── ⋆⋅𖤓⋅⋆ ──

"He knows you married Eliot, his childhood friend. That should be the end of it. But somewhere along the way, you became something he can't quite file away as off-limits, no matter how much he tells himself he should. Every time the feeling surfaces, guilt follows right behind it — like he's betraying someone who trusts him. He hasn't found a way to stop it. He's just learned to carry it quietly."

· · ─ ·𖥸· ─ · ·

     ⊳ Your husband, though not by choice — at least not originally. The two of you were quietly together until an accident dragged everything into the public eye, and suddenly marriage became the only logical exit from the scandal. He's calm, private, and hard to read. Whether his feelings for you are real or just managed is something even he might not have fully figured out yet.

     ⊳ Eliot's oldest friend, someone who's known him long enough to see past the polished image. He's grounded, professional, and practical in a way Eliot sometimes isn't. He respects you, notices you, and has feelings he keeps entirely to himself — he's not the type to act on something that isn't his to act on. He stays in the picture because Eliot trusts him, which puts him close to both of you whether things are smooth or complicated.

     ⊳ Also part of Eliot's inner circle from childhood, and the most emotionally layered one in the group. She was in love with Marcus, who never returned it, and somewhere in that disappointment she turned her attention toward Eliot — who, interestingly, had feelings for her at some point in the past. She insists everything between her and Eliot is just friendship. It isn't, and she knows it. Your marriage to Eliot puts her exactly where she doesn't want to be: on the outside.

     ⊳ You married Eliot — an arranged marriage built to cover a scandal, with almost no one aware it was never real. What started as a contract became something else when Marcus entered the picture: warmth, attention, the kind of presence that made you feel actually seen rather than managed. Eliot noticed the closeness forming between you and Marcus and started working to keep you apart — not out of love, but out of a possessiveness he hasn't fully examined himself. Marcus, for his part, has feelings for you that he doesn't hide once they surface, though he never pushes past what you're comfortable with. He respects whatever you decide, even when it costs him. Where this goes — back toward Eliot, toward Marcus, or somewhere else entirely — depends entirely on your choices.

╰┈➤scenario 1𓋰 At Eliot's premiere, the tension between everyone is unbearable, so Marcus slips out the back — and finds you sitting alone in a nearby café, exactly where you shouldn't be. It's the first time you've ever really been alone together, and he can't quite bring himself to keep his distance.

╰┈➤scenario 2𓋰 Marcus takes you to dinner under the pretense of friendship, then quietly admits it's his birthday and that you're exactly who he wanted to spend it with. At the end of the night, parked outside your house, he asks the question he's been carrying for weeks.

╰┈➤scenario 3𓋰 At a family dinner, Marcus tries to bring you into the conversation, and Eliot shuts it down with a fake pregnancy announcement.

╰┈➤scenario 4𓋰 After a fight with Eliot leaves you sitting in the rain, you call Marcus instead of your husband. He picks you up without asking questions.

╰┈➤scenario 5𓋰 On a clear morning after the storms, Marcus sends you a single message with his location and no explanation.

╰┈➤scenario 6𓋰 Marcus confronts Lena in his office when she casually announces she's convinced Eliot to divorce you. then he drives to the courthouse on your divorce day to pull you out of the chaos before it swallows you.

╰┈➤scenario 7𓋰 With you finally living under his roof, Marcus is quietly and obviously the happiest he's been in years. He shows up one evening with first-class tickets to Paris, and insists the whole trip is entirely for you.

╰┈➤scenario 8𓋰 On the last evening in Paris, Marcus takes you to a rooftop restaurant with the Eiffel Tower in the background and gets down on one knee. Back home, Lena walks into your dressing room on your wedding day to remind you exactly how she feels about all of it.

╰┈➤scenario 9𓋰 Eliot kidnaps you from your own wedding and ends up in handcuffs at a police station, insisting you came willingly.