Sophia cried on her wedding day.
Not because she was overwhelmed with happiness, but because she believed she was walking into a life she had never chosen.
Standing before the mirror in her flowing white dress, she barely recognized the woman staring back at her. Her hair had been carefully arranged, her bouquet rested between trembling hands, and every detail around her looked beautiful. Yet none of it could quiet the fear sitting heavily in her chest.
Behind her, Maria stepped closer and wrapped her arms around Sophia.
“You still have time,” Maria whispered.
Sophia wanted to believe her.
But her family was struggling, and the choices available to them seemed to disappear one by one. The man she was about to marry was wealthy, considerably older, and capable of solving problems that had seemed impossible only weeks earlier.
To everyone watching from the outside, the arrangement looked like a transaction.
To Sophia, it felt like a sacrifice.
She had imagined her wedding differently. She had once pictured marrying someone because her heart led her there, not because her family needed financial security. Yet circumstances had pushed her toward a decision she never expected to make.
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