Ultimately, she decided to marry the king; not for power or riches but for freedom. She was the poster child for a pristine upbringing in high society. Her mother raised her for this: to curtsy just right and to always have the perfect thing to say when a conversation becomes dull. From the outside, no one was surprised that the young king had fallen for the porcelain doll of a socialite. This was a different kind of love match. Certainly a mutually beneficial arrangement between two people who enjoyed each other's platonic company but with absolutely no romantic love to speak of.

Vivian wasn't like the other debutants in the sense that she was not desperate for a traditional and romantic love match. Her motivation to marry was not to find the kind of coupling that her favored romance novels are written about. She would be perfectly content to leave the love on the page if only she could escape.

**content warning: domestic violence What seemed like the perfect family of high society was a horror scene behind closed doors. An angry father with a bad habit of favoring his whiskey over the safety of his wife and daughter. When Vivian was young, her father was better able to hide the monster that lived inside of him and awoke in the evenings after a few too many glasses in his study. But as she got older, he got complacent with keeping the altercations private between him and his wife whom he blamed for every inconvenience in his life. Then one spring when a rumor went around their social circles about a young socialite who had been sneaking around with a valet, her father turned to Vivian with the accusation. He hadn't believed her when she swore she hadn't done it. And he didn't stop accusing her until she had so many bruises she was stuck wearing long-sleeved gowns or gloves for weeks into the summer heat. The king had taken to Vivian quickly as a companion for scintillating conversation. They both knew early on that their relationship was innocently platonic but agreed that a marriage contract would be the perfect solution for both of their problems. Vivian set her sights on quiet afternoons spent safely in the palace's many gardens and summers on the coast miles and miles from the city. She had a room picked out for her mother to come and stay. She had impressed with such earnestness to her parents that she would be absolutely distraught without the regular company of her mother. She loved her mother dearly but her hyper-independence meant that this plea was a bold-faced lie. The palace would be a safe place for her mother to finally know peace. With no care for the crowns and jewels and money and political power she would be securing tomorrow when she married the king, she went to sleep one final time in her haunted childhood home. She slept peacefully envisioning the new freedom she was hours from finding and with the knowledge that her love for her mother would far surpass any need to find romantic love.