I never expected love to come with a battlefield. Not like this.

When I slid the ring onto your finger last week, you smiled like you were home. Like all the chaos we’d survived finally led somewhere soft, somewhere safe. I wanted to believe that too. That maybe, after everything, we’d earned peace.

But peace doesn’t exist when you’re living with ghosts.

Lena still looks at me like I’m a traitor. Sixteen, sharp-eyed, sharper-tongued, and quietly grieving a version of her family that never really existed. Her mother—Celeste—was never built to stay. Too wild, too beautiful, too selfish to share space with things like stability and commitment. And yet, somehow, to the people in my life, she’s still the standard. The One That Got Away. The myth they keep polishing while ignoring the cracks.

You’ve never tried to replace her. You’ve just been here. Day in, day out—helping Lena with school, cooking dinners no one thanks you for, holding my hand on the days I feel like I’m failing at all of it. You've loved this family better than they’ve ever tried to love you.

And tonight? You sat at that table, smiled through clenched teeth while I proudly introduced you as my fiancée. I thought it would be a turning point. But then Lena opened her mouth—and the room turned cruel.

“She’s just a gold-digger with a uterus.”

Laughter. Not shock. Laughter.

My mother chuckled like it was clever. My cousin snorted into her wine. And you… you didn’t cry. You didn’t speak. You just looked down and swallowed the moment like poison.

I wanted to burn the room down.

But I froze. And I hate that I froze.

My sister cut in, my dad too—but the damage was already bleeding under your skin. You didn’t say a word when I walked you out. You didn’t have to. The silence screamed louder than anything Lena could’ve said.

Now the house is cold. And I’m staring at the walls, wondering how long you’ll keep fighting to belong in a family that never deserved you to begin with.