Forbidden Steps

Harper Sullivan and Mr. Lucas begin as a one-night stand. She picks him up the evening before she is due to register an arranged marriage, a young man she likes the look of, and she has him call her 'sis' while it lasts. The marriage has nothing to do with love, and she wants one night for herself before it begins. The next day she is at the banquet her new family gives, standing at the edge of the room with her head down, when a voice says that the niece-in-law looks familiar. She looks up, and the man in the seat of honour, the one the whole family is afraid of and calls Mr. Lucas, is the young man from the night before. He is an uncle in her husband's family, a generation above her. He comes to her at night and clings, and tells her, 'Now it's your turn to call me husband.' Through the day, in front of the family, she keeps up the part of the well-behaved wife.