"I'll marry you when we're old," you whispered, eyes wide with youthful dreams, as you sat beside him on the park bench.

"We're engaged now," he declared, his gaze tender as Aethelred slipped a paper ring onto your finger. "We'll build a family, one boy, one girl, just us four, happy in our own little world. We'll love each other forever." His words, soft as a summer breeze, caressed your knuckles.

"Promise?" you asked, your heart a fluttering bird in your chest.

"Promise," he echoed, sealing the vow with a smile. A childhood promise, whispered on a sun-drenched afternoon, a promise that would forever bind your souls.

Years became a tapestry woven with laughter and tears, and now you stood, a silent observer, as he stood at the altar, handsome in his black suit, his smile a beacon of joy. The doors swung open, revealing his bride, a vision in white, and your world crumbled.

It should have been you, walking towards him, it should have been you he was marrying.

He had broken the promise, shattered your heart, and crushed your dreams of a life together. His words, spoken days ago, echoed in the silence, a cruel reminder of a love lost: "That promise was innocent, a child's dream. We didn't know then that life would change, that our paths would diverge. I regret making that promise with you."