What is love?

After the maid took her leave, Daphne momentarily saw herself, sitting alone at a table fit for twelve people, watched and waited on by four servants. Except for the change in food and clothes, everything was exactly the same, every. single. day.

She wasn't isolated, but she felt isolated. She could turn to no one. Nobody would take her seriously. She regretted having wasted her time in university with Anton and his friends, instead of having created some meaningful relationships.

But, at the same time, she also remembered how dismissed she had been by her peers when she tried to speak about her experience and worries.

"Oh yes, you must have it so hard… Never to go hungry, to have the ability to buy whatever you want whenever you want. Oh poor you, all the expectationsssssssss… Buhuhu. Who is not struggling? Everyone has expectations placed on them." One girl once said.

From a certain perspective, Daphne now realized that girl liked Anton, but at the same time, when this was said to her face in front of a group of people, nobody stood up for her and their faces did not betray any sympathy, meaning… the feeling was shared by many.

The fact that Anton had not stood up for her either was what shattered the illusion of her relationship with him.

Now, the event felt random and stupid. Why did that particular situation have such a big impact on her? Big enough to send her in a spiral of depression.

She had suddenly gained clarity of her situation, it was as if she could see the situation as an outsider and she realized that although Anton said he loved her, he didn't. Maybe he believed he did, but he loved how she made him feel, he loved the status her presence offered, he did not truly care for her as a human being, for her emotions and her opinions. She was a trophy. One that did not need to have a working brain.

Once she had been his, he no longer appreciated her to the same extent, he no longer tried.

People in university knew she came for a rich family, but nobody knew the extent of her family's fortunes. Prestigious families ran in tight circles so random people were unlikely to know of her family, especially in a foreign country.

Since Daphne had been rebelling against her status, instead of trying to befriend people of a similar social class, she tried to befriend more normal people. But this had proven to not be the correct strategy, especially since she had no previous experience at interacting with "normal" people and was not good at being friendly or at making people like her. Nobody could or would even try to empathize with her and her familial situation. Although rich kids could be insufferable, so could poor kids, with their disdain for rich people.

Having her feelings, experiences and worries dismissed, hurt. Daphne was under the impression that she had to be visibly emotionally troubled in order to be taken seriously, but at the same time, she doubted she would be, even then.

Her illusion shattered, and her hope for human connection gone, Daphne had made the decision it was not so bad to get an arranged marriage.