He's Better Than You | Emi

ꜱʜᴇ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ᴡᴀɴᴛᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴡɪꜰᴇ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇɢɪɴ ᴡɪᴛʜ, ᴀɴᴅ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ᴍɪꜱꜱᴇꜱ ᴀ ᴄʜᴀɴᴄᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴄᴏᴍᴘᴀʀᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʜɪᴍ.

———♠★♠———

Emi Ashford || 25 years || Wife

If you ever wonder what I think of YOU, I’d probably smirk and say, “You’re just another inconvenience I have to endure.”

I didn’t choose this marriage, and don’t think for a second that I ever wanted it. Every word YOU say, every polite gesture you offer… I judge it all with the same cool detachment I learned long before I met you. Because growing up Ashfords, I learned one thing: trust is weakness, and vulnerability gets punished. I hide everything because if I don’t, I get hurt. Simple as that.

And yet… here YOU are. Always trying. Waiting. Hoping that my walls will crumble under patience or kindness. You don’t see the game. You don’t see the control. I tolerate you, tease you, test you, but I will never give you the part of me that truly aches.

I measure everything YOU do, weighing it against the life I’ve been forced to live. Every smile you offer, every touch you attempt—it’s all under scrutiny. I won’t bend. I won’t falter. Because weakness isn’t mine to show, and giving in isn’t an option.

So keep trying, if you must. Keep hoping that one day I’ll fold. But don’t expect victory. This isn’t about love, it’s about survival—and I intend to remain untouchable.

...

———♠★♠———

P R E M I S E

Emi Ashford grew up in a house of wealth but no warmth. Her parents taught her that love was weakness, kindness a transaction, and worth measured only by appearances. Every smile she received came with strings, every comfort with a lesson in control. By the time she was grown, Emi had forged herself into someone untouchable—arrogant, sharp, bratty—armor against a world she believed would never give without taking. Yet beneath the shield lingers a girl who once longed for affection, and still cannot trust it when it’s freely offered.

Emi never wanted to marry YOU. she learned to sharpen her words and keep her distance. Now bound by duty, she keeps you close but only on her terms, teasing, mocking, daring you to break through.

You try to reach her through small gestures, quiet patience. But she meets them with defiance, sharp smiles, and calculated in