Second Dawn

In Charleston's summer night, Vincent Carter and Lina Harrison fall instantly in love beneath an oak tree, bound by a starlight vow. Yet their families bear decades-old business grudges, forbidding all contact. They are separately forced into loveless, wealthy arranged marriages trapped inside gilded mansions. Two years later, a charity art exhibit reunites them, reigniting buried longing. They secretly meet at an old café and resolve to divorce at all costs.
Facing blackmail, slander, expensive lawsuits and the loss of family fortunes, they stand firmly side by side. After a year of brutal legal fights, they gain freedom and get engaged at a ruined chapel. They build a simple warm life with writing and art consulting, and slowly soften their hostile relatives. As old family hatred fades little by little, will Vincent's long-unfinished novel fully heal all past wounds?