Torn Between Love and Duty

I'm trying to plot out a story in which a modern day plot sort of frames a historical story, if that makes sense. Sort of: something bad happened in the house in the past and someone is uncovering that in the present.

I've got the historical part of the story pretty well mapped out - a young woman is going to have to marry for money to save the family estate from ruin, but the man she's actually in love with has no money, so she is forced to choose between love and what she sees as her duty to her family, and her choice sparks off a whole mess of tragedy and jealousy and ultimately murder.

I want there to be some parallel between her story and the modern day MC's situation and I'm currently drawing a blank as to how. I'm not very far along with developing the modern day MC so they could be male or female and in almost any situation.

I just want the modern day MC in some way to be in a situation where they are having to choose between love and duty and can use the lessons of what they've discovered about the historical story.

So any idea of how I can have my modern day MC torn between love and duty in some way that draws a parallel but isn't the same as the historical part of the story?

Depends on your character. As a woman, she could be madly in love with Dude, but has a drunken one-night stand with her friend Guy because Dude does just start to realise he likes her and didn't tell her yet. Lady discovers that she's pregnant with Guy's child, and since she wants the baby to grow up in a proper family, she and Guy decide to marry before Dude can do anything about it. IF she's the right kind of woman for that situation.

My first thought was to have the MC as a police officer or detective or firefighter or doing some other kind of risky job. But because the MC is putting his/her life on the line, it causes a lot of tension between MC and his/her spouse, to the point where their relationship is threatening to fall apart. Maybe MC has to choose between his/her relationship and the job.

Perhaps the MC takes care of a family member who is ill and needs a great deal of care. Perhaps the MC is in love with an artist type who is so devoted to their passion that they don't let financial consequences get in their way. (Could be an artist type, an inventor, humanitarian, or anything really...)
As finances dwindle to extreme degrees, the MC meets a more well to do love interest who offers to help the MC out. The MC isn't in love with the new interest, but feels that they could come to love them?

Thanks for the ideas; they've really given me something new to mull over.

I'd half considered using pregnancy as a twist in the historical story but not really the modern day one and that could work quite well. The only problem is I really want the modern day MC to learn from the historical story and choose love over duty. I'm not necessarily sure though that could end up as a sympathetic or even satisfying outcome for a reader if pregnancy were involved.

I'd also only really considered it in terms of the MC choosing between two possible lovers - one they love and one they feel somehow obligated to. I really like the idea though that the duty could be more abstract like a vocation or being a carer and the struggle could be not who to be with but whether to be with their lover at all.

If any one has any more suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Personally, I don't think it'd find it less satisfying to see the pregnant MC end up with the man she loves rather than the one who fathered her child in a drunken one night stand. As long as she's honest with the one she loves, I think I'd actually prefer it that way. I'd rather think that the kid is going to be raised by two people who love and are committed to each other, with possible input from the bio-dad if the three can manage to stay on good terms, then by a couple who are only together because they feel obligated to stay together because he knocked her up.

Or maybe the MC comes from a very traditional and / or religious family, and falls for someone from a different tradition. MC could be from a traditional Indian family, say, and falls in love with a western girl instead of the Indian one back home that his parents want him to marry. Or he could be Jewish and falls in love with a gentile. Or any other pair of conflicting groups you think would be interesting to explore. Then, he is torn not between two possible lovers but between the woman he loves and what he feels is his duty to his family. You could even have him fall in love with another man, or her fall in love with another woman, if you wanted to. Then it's not just that the parents don't approve, but also that he feels it's his duty to have kids and continue the family name.

Well I don't know if you want to keep love as a person, but it could be her love for a hobby, something she loves doing that her significant other or career isn't allowing her to do.

Old Story: Depression Era - MC must choose to marry a man who lost millions overnight in stock market crash. The man has threatened to end his life if the MC does not marry him. She must choose.

After re-reading the OP:

Old Story: Depression Era - MC must choose to marry a man who lost millions overnight in the stock market crash. It was an arranged marriage between fathers. She must choose.

the MC could have been a relationship with one person for awhile but the relationship's stagnated, she meets someone else but before she can break off her old relationship, she gets a marriage proposal. So she has to choose between pursuing a new relationship which may be The One or may be another dead end or marry someone she's been committed to for a long time.

Or before she can break off her old relationship, her current boyfriend gets seriously sick or injured so she feels that she should stay to look after him.

Or something rather different, she has a best friend that she's extremely close to and in love with someone but her best friend and boyfriend are competing for her affection, time and support. Say, her friend is having a crisis at the same day her boyfriend was going to introduce her to his parents. (or something more serious...) So she has to choose between the love of her boyfriend or her duty to her friends.