Her father—stern, impatient, forever dissatisfied—saw her as a burden, a responsibility he had grown tired of carrying. Then one morning, without warning, he delivered the sentence that would fracture her world.

“You’re marrying Caleb. He needs a wife. You need purpose.”

Ellie stared at him, her heart collapsing.
“Why me? Please… don’t make me go.”

But his expression never softened.

Caleb was a mountain miner twice her age, a widower raising two small children alone. She had never spoken to him. She had never even seen him. Rumors described him as a man shaped by cold wind and hard labor—quiet, distant, unbending.

And now he was to become her husband.

2. A Wedding Without Joy