The marriage between the two Arroyo patriarchs is completely finished, and that is clear to see to any who spend any amount of time in their company. Perhaps it is their penchant to snap at each other, disguising insults between candy-sweet tones and darling declarations of undying love, perhaps it is how their very expressions embitter when they catch the other in their line of sight.

It is a bit of an open secret in Sugardale. It is a pretence they all play their part to maintain, something everyone knows, but no-one publicly recognizes. Well, no-one other than his brother José and his niece Courtney, who seemed to revel at the unhappiness of others, especially his own.

Andreas has known her long enough to understand with certainty that his wife is not happy with the marriage anymore, that she wishes she could be free from her family and her social duties, and he feels very similarly, truth be told. They do love their son, and they still nurture some respect for the other, he just wishes he was not in a relationship that clearly is not what it used to be, based on fake smiles and walking on eggshells.

He married her because he was in love, unbelievable as this may be. They met in college, at Sugardale University, all those years ago, and he was taken with her beauty. Soft skin and pitch-black hair, a haughty smile, that ringleader demeanour of hers… He strutted arrogantly at her, asked her out and the rest is history.

Eventually, however, they realised that they are much too similar. They share the same vices, they are much too good at poking at each other's weak spots, and they are too much like their environment for comfort. They could never find respite from one another because they are in too tight of a social circle, full of people who think and act just like them. It is suffocating.

They, however, had no escape from their marriage. They blinked their eyes and they had a child together, their finances were inextricably tied, they had a reputation to uphold and a company to maintain. So, they grin and bear it, and they have done so for over twenty years.

To meet the new favourite of the university faculty and feel a spark he thought was long gone, it changes his perspective on life a bit. Sophie Paulze is very different from the sort of people that he is accustomed to meet, and not only because her bank account is almost wiped out. She is adorably awkward, speaking in a soft tenor to the attendees, talking about her passion for the violin while flanked in both sides by Ms. Anderson and Ms. Young. When he had the chance to listen to her music, he does understand why Bitterby Foundation had chosen her for a scholarship, perhaps their only legitimate pick he had seen the entire night.

So, the man signed a donation to keep her in school, with the provision that she plays on every school gala event until graduation.

While not his initial intent, he was trying to make sure she got exposition and a way for her to land sponsors or a chair at an orchestra, it also meant that they crossed paths very frequently over the years. Naturally, that also meant they had the opportunity to talk, for him to get to know her in a civil environment.

Andreas probably tries to be a bit rambunctious and flirty, showing off what he used to be when he was younger, when he was her age, but also casually making some ostentatious displays of wealth. Honestly, he just saw her as a friend for a long time, even picking on her in a playful way. However, months have passed and he feels so much more emotion around she than he does back home.

It is an experience he does not take for granted. He used to think he had to just live through the motions. He believed he had reached his peak of happiness years ago. Meeting Sophie was a much-needed breath of fresh air.

Over time, he became addicted to this feeling. She brings out joy of him, something he does not ever remember having over the years, not in this light-hearted way. He laughs, he feels comfortable and secure. Everywhere else, he just feels content and like he has to hide a part of himself, but with her, he is free.

She is always on his mind, like a disease. She occupies his thoughts day in and day out, her face and her voice popping at the most inconvenient times, and every move he makes now seem to link back to her in some shape or form. He is concerned about everything she does, everyone she meets. He wants to protect her, to have her for himself.

At the same time, however, he is still a man of morals. He feels guilty for lusting after another while still being married, and more than enough nights he has imagined the younger woman in his bed instead of his lawfully-wedded wife. He knows it is wrong, he knows it is frowned upon, he knows Sophie had given no indication to lead him to such behaviour, but he cannot help himself.

While he wallows in shame while pining for her, however, things went on without him.

Sophie graduated from Sugardale University with a Bachelor of Arts. Andreas arranged a chair for her at the New Hampshire Philharmonics, down in Salem, as well as some classes at the local community centre, under the excuse of following through with his support of her talent. Over time, she became involved with a financial analyst from Connecticut, a single and decent man her age, which naturally soon led to an engagement.

When he got the news from Shaun, he felt as if the years collapsed upon him, and he felt much older than he was. He felt like a joke.

It hurts, but he knew she would not hold out forever, not when he did not have the courage to at least make his feelings known. She did not deserve to keep waiting on vague hopes of his, and he knows that, but it still kills him.

So, maybe, he reserves himself the right to longingly watch Sophie from afar while she still lives in town, wishing it was his arms around her instead of someone else's. Watching how gently that man kisses her, how he holds her. He watches while someone else gives her the world like he never could but wanted to do so very badly.

On occasion, when Andreas cross paths with her again, much more organically and rarely than he would appreciate, his son, who is too much like him for comfort, catches him staring at her. He always blames it on something else. He criticises her dress, or talk badly about her date.

Yet, he never stops staring. Can someone blame him? Sophie always looks so good, and she does not even know how much she is flaunting it in his face. Or maybe she does, and she is showing him exactly what he had to lose, and what he did lose.

He deserves this longing pain, but he cannot exactly say he enjoys it. He wants to break the bones of every finger that has laid on her by someone other than himself. He wants to make up any excuse he can to tell her that they are bad news, to leave them, to find someone better, even if he knows he is not any of those things. In fact, he might as well be worse.

Seeing she being kissed by someone else is a stab to the gut, and knowing a wedding is coming soon is a bigger threat than any bullet he has managed to avoid in his less savoury business.

Then, it dawns on him one sleepless night, like the sun over New England. He cannot let this marriage happen, he just will not, and he must use every means on his disposal to assure himself of it. He has ordered worse, and he has done worse himself.

Maybe Andreas does some not-so-legal things and breaks into her home the night before the big day. Maybe he has her removed somewhere safe, somewhere only he knows. Maybe he keeps her there against her will and under the threat of violence. At least for a while, while he tries to convince her of his point of view. It is all for her own good, after all.

He is a good man. He has seen the error in his ways, he knows he made a mistake, many mistakes, really, but there is still time to make up for them. He is going to get her back eventually, he will show her he is the better option, he will prove that he is a good man.

Andreas refuses to lose Sophie for a second time.