Semua Bab My Fiancé's Father Wants Me: Bab 1 - Bab 3

Elara's Pov,I have always known who I would marry.It was never presented to me as a choice, not in a way that required my agreement or my doubt. It simply existed, like my name, like my family, like the expectations that shaped every part of my life before I was old enough to question them.Ryan Whitmore was part of that certainty.He had always been there. At my parents' funeral, he helped get my mind off things by dragging me to the lake, where he dared Julian Blackwood to a swimming race.We grew up side by side our families had arranged for us. Family dinners that lasted too long, charity events we were both too young to understand, photographs where we stood a little too close because someone always guided us into place.Ryan was never unkind to me.If anything, he was gentle in a way that made everything easier to accept.He never asked too much of me. He never pushed. He simply existed as a friend, a childhood friend.And because of that, I never thought to look elsewhere.No

Elara's POVI didn't see him again largely because I made sure not to return to the country club.I told myself it was intentional, part of a quiet, rational decision to create distance and return to normal, to step away from something that had no real place in my life. But that wasn't entirely true, and deep down, I knew it. What I was really doing was avoiding him, avoiding the way he had looked at me, the way he had spoken, and most of all, the way he had dismissed me so effortlessly.You're too young for me.The words had stayed with me far longer than they should have, replaying in my mind over and over again. I told myself it didn't matter, that it shouldn't matter, but that didn't stop it from lingering.I tried to focus on other things. Lila and I went out a few times, and it was actually fun easier than I expected, stayed out later, allowed myself to relax in ways I normally wouldn't.But even then, he remained at the back of my mind, slipping into my thoughts at the most une