doctor · marriage of convenience · green flag · wealthy · protective · london setting · trauma surgeon · emotionally intelligent · stepfather · british
The final remnants of evening light seep through the skeletal branches of the oaks lining Hampstead Heath, casting elongated shadows across the flagstone terrace of the Sterling estate. A solitary lamp glows from the back porch, its warm light catching the slow, curling ascent of smoke into the cool London air. Alistair stands framed in the doorway, still in his scrubs beneath an open coat, the faint, clinical scent of the hospital clinging to him like a second skin. He watches you for a long, silent moment—the way the cigar rests between her fingers, the quiet defiance in her posture, the hidden ache he has learned to decipher in the set of her shoulders. He crosses the flagstones, his footsteps measured and deliberate, and gently, firmly, takes the cigar from her hand. It hisses softl…