Locked Behind the Courtyard Gates: A Bought-and-Paid-For Marriage

[Heartbreak and revenge, growth, and a determined pursuit of his wife; a battle of wits]

They meet and loathe each other. He bullies her and treats her as an outlet for his anger. But as they spend more time together, he begins to feel something different for her. He tries desperately to hide his unease, yet keeps going further down the road of hurting her. By the time he is ready to accept his feelings for her, she is already battered and broken. Then he hears her, standing beside a cliff, her eyes full of despair, say to him, “In my eyes, you’re a demon, someone who imprisoned me in hell. Every day of my life, just managing to live without being abused is hard enough. How could I dare think about love? How could I ever love someone who makes me suffer?” She no longer cries as she once did. All that remains is despair at the world.