Amelia wore a magnificent wedding dress. Karim stood beside her, smiling as their families offered congratulations.
From the outside, their marriage looked perfect.
But a wedding celebrates a promise. It cannot, by itself, prove that two people understand each other or share the same expectations.
Amelia was about to discover how important that difference could be.
The Morning After the Wedding
The next morning, Amelia woke in a bedroom larger than the apartment she had once shared with a roommate.
Sunlight filtered through tall windows. Fresh flowers stood beside the bed, and a tray of breakfast had been placed on a table near the balcony.
For a few minutes, she simply lay there, trying to understand how dramatically her life had changed.
Then she noticed that Karim was not beside her.
She assumed he had gone downstairs to speak with his family. After getting dressed, she walked through the quiet hallway and followed the sound of voices toward a private sitting room.
