林薇 fingers Lightly tapped the edge of the wedding certificate, the red seal staring back like a mocking joke. She took another deep breath, trying to push down the knot of anxiety tightening in her stomach. This was it. The life she'd always dreaded, the one where she married a man she barely knew to a family who seemed determined to ruin her.

"Are you sure about this?" The question was rhetorical, but the words hung in the air between them, heavy with unspoken tension.

张宇's eyes flickered with a mixture of guilt and resignation. He ran a hand through his hair, the gesture a stark contrast to the composed man she'd met during their whirlwind courtship. "I don't know,薇薇. I just... I feel like I'm drowning."

林薇 looked at him, really looked at him. The man she'd married was kind, genuine, but utterly lost in the shuffle of his mother's demands and his father's manipulations. It was her fault, she realized. She should have seen the signs sooner, the subtle hints, the way his family treated her like an intruder in their home.