By Turrnut on December 1, 2024
Two weeks. For two whole weeks, Leo Bennett has been living with his wife, Ellen Ashford. But to him, their wedding felt like only yesterday, when an elderly priest with a long, white, beard declared to everyone attending their wedding that he was now officially her husband.
As bizarre as it might seem, Ellen was still a stranger to him—after all, they had met only once before they got married. Their marriage was arranged by their parents, who are both alike in socioeconomic status. The Ashfords were bankers, while the Bennetts were wealthy farmers, who made a fortune by selling citrus that grew on their property.
Growing up, Leo received little attention from his parents, due to always how busy they are at work. During his youth, he didn’t understand what their jobs were, but it created distance between them. Throughout his life, he grew up accompanied by nobody except the family servant that they hired, whose primary responsibility was supervision rather than providing emotional support, a situation that persisted until his college graduation. After which, his marriage was arranged.
Leo remembered the first time he met Ellen. He had been expecting the meeting for weeks, ever since his parents informed him abruptly that he was to marry the daughter of a banker. This news did not surprise him and he did not object, because he was aware that at his age, it is an expectation that he should get married. On that particular day, he was informed by his parents that they would be visiting his soon-to-be wife.
When he arrived, he discovered that similar to his family, the Ashfords also lived in a large mansion, much like all the other contemporary upper-class families.
They entered and were greeted by Mr. and Mrs. Ashford. Leo saw Ellen, who, in simple terms, was not pretty. The meeting with Ellen’s family was brief, the whole time the parents discussed the details and the logistics of the wedding, during which they were never left alone together. However, that did not stop Ellen from glancing at Leo’s direction, which he noticed and made him feel extremely uncomfortable.
A few weeks after that, their wedding took place. Now that they are officially married they were given their own house, which was bought by both of their parents.
During these initial two weeks, they didn’t talk, they didn’t eat together, they didn’t even sleep in the same room. He was completely unaccustomed to this new lifestyle, and he was not alone. They both felt uncomfortable in each other’s presence and tried to stay away from each other as much as they could by navigating through the unfamiliar interior of their house, which was perhaps way too spacious for two people. Nevertheless, they familiarize themselves with the house, perhaps more so than each other.
Two weeks after their wedding, while checking the mail in the morning, Leo received a letter from one of his uncles. However, because he has a big family, it is uncertain who specifically sent him the letter. Nonetheless, in the letter was an invitation addressed to him and his wife to a ball to celebrate a certain event for a reason he was unsure about.
Even though he has never really remembered or even cared about the identities of his relatives—which includes aunts and uncles—he decided against rejecting this act of hospitality. Now since he is accepting the offer, this does imply that his wife will be coming too. So he put the letter down, located Ellen’s capacious room, and walked in.
He started into the room. Some sunlight was let in by the half-closed curtains. Beautiful carpet was laid on the floor, beautiful paintings of natural scenery were hung on the floor, and a cozy armchair stood next to a desk. She was sitting on the armchair, reading a book.
He informed her about the invitation sent to them by his uncle, to which she replied without even looking up, her tone full of indifference, “Sure, I’ll come.”
Saturday—the day when the ball was scheduled to take place has arrived. A carriage was waiting for them outside of their house, Leo and Ellen got on.
After they arrived, Leo immediately lost interest in the event. His uncle’s opening speech was monotonous and dry. To make matters worse, when the speech finally ended, he found the music mundane and the food colorless and tasteless, and the dancing tedious. Quickly, he regretted the decision to accept the invitation and wished in secret that the ball would all end soon.
It was at this time that he decided that he would take a break from dancing and get a drink. However, perhaps he was exhausted, he missed the goblet and spilled it all over the place. When he looked up, he found that a good-looking young woman who was also getting a drink was staring at him.
“Excuse me,” he apologized quickly, his face turning red.
“No worries”, she replied, “it happens.”
After that, they found a quiet place and drank together. As they began to talk, he found out many things about her. Like her name is Maya, or she is the daughter of a family who owned a large cotton mill, or she was engaged to a man named Ethan, but she didn’t want to marry him.
“Did your parents make you marry him?” Leo asked.
“Yeah, because he is very rich.”
As they talked, he felt as if time was flying by, his boredom and lethargy sweeping away, his mind becoming more and more immersed. He realized quickly that he was falling in love with her—the first time he felt that way about anyone, not about Ellen, or his relatives, or his parents.
The next week, Leo was missing. In fact, he vanished without a trace. His parents looked for him, but he was nowhere to be found. Coincidentally, Maya was missing too, but since Mr. and Mrs. Bennett didn’t know her, they didn’t notice.
The Ashfords, on the other hand, are considering something else.
“Well”, said Mrs. Ashford, “It is time to look for a new bridegroom for Ellen.”