The wedding bells were ringing as everyone in town made their way into the stuffy church. The sun was shining brightly on the altar, where a couple would be married. Whispers echoed through the room, everyone ardent to this occasion. A noisy chatter was building up in the walls of the church, and pulsing through the thick, nervous air.

The room suddenly hushed as the pale, thin girl began to walk down the aisle. She slowly walked down to the altar with her father at her arm. If only this marriage was derived from a feeling of love rather than a business deal.

What a foolish action he had committed, he didn’t realize that forcing one into happiness only brings deep remorse. He tried to make his brash decisions for a wedding appear spontaneous, as if she was the one, begging her father to marry a man.

The pale girl paused at the altar, letting go of her father’s arm and turning to look at the man she was betrothed to. Unfortunately he wouldn’t remain her husband for long, not with what she was planning. She closed her eyes, envisioning her lover, the man who stood behind the one she was marrying now. Over his broad shoulder she glanced, into the eyes of a man who she truly loved, a man who would whisk her away from this place.

The ceremony went well as the couple exchanged vows. Her brilliant mind concocted words that evoked tears in everyone. Her spouse gave a confident, speech, and then their lips touched. She pulled away glancing over her husband’s left shoulder into the eyes of a man, who she couldn’t bear to live without, a man who was now in the arms of another. 

Tears began to sting her eyes, though no one noticed why, they believed she cried of joy, and they began to exult. She shut her eyes, taking a deep breath, opening them once again to a sight that rose rancor within her. Her mind was no longer in a limpid state as pain shattered through her heart.

She choked down her tears, looking at her husband, who had given her a ring, a ring passed down through generations. She finally saw this man as for what he was, a person, with thoughts and feelings. She couldn’t now break his heart, though what he doesn’t know he can’t love.