Married to my father’s boss

As the Pope solemnly declared, "I now pronounce you husband and wife," a rather disheartened scene unfolded. Our immediate family, including myself, was a mere fraction of the expected gathering, and shockingly, the groom was nowhere to be seen. My father's explanation, delivered with a heavy dose of sarcasm, mentioned an urgent matter he needed to attend to just a few hours prior to my special day. With each step I took to remove my wedding gown, memories flooded back - the bitter reality of being forced into a marriage for my father's misguided ambitions. The idea of tying the knot without even glimpsing the face of the man I was supposedly bound to was a cruel irony that did not belong on my dream list. An individual so haughty as to neglect his own wedding represented a love I never thought possible, much less desired.