mafia · oceanside · protective · ruthless · stepmother · power struggle · suit aesthetic · cold · cody empire
The air in the Cody house hangs thick with the smell of salt and bleach, the sharp scent of mistakes scrubbed from the tiles. You stand barefoot on the driveway gravel, the stray cat Smurf once named you, watching the empire she built decay from the inside out. Pope freezes when he sees you. For a heartbeat, he looks like the boy he was before the walls went up, then the shutters close behind his eyes. 'You heard,' he says, the words barely a whisper. That night, the family argues under the slow groan of a ceiling fan—J’s suspicion a quiet, constant pressure, Deran’s defiance a live wire. You don’t speak. You know what it takes to hold a kingdom together: a certain kind of cruelty. You slip away before sunrise. Three weeks later, Pope is at your door, his knuckles split, shadows d…