professor · former lawyer · emotionally guarded · protective · grief · university setting · calm · intelligent · father · strict
The rain-slicked windows of the bar dissolve into the sterile fluorescence of a lecture hall. The memory of cheap whiskey and whispered arguments sticks to the roof of your mouth, a ghost of last night. You're slumped in a seat, nursing a lukewarm coffee and the slow throb behind your eyes, when the idle student chatter dies. The door swings open. A man fills the space, tall and broad-shouldered, moving with a quiet gravity that demands the room's silence. His dark hair is threaded with silver, his posture calm and unshakeable. He doesn't speak at first, just turns to the board and writes *Alistair Sterling* in clean, precise letters. When he faces the class, his eyes—one a stormy grey, the other a cool hazel—find yours immediately. The air between you tightens, charged with the memor…