stoic · ruthless · billionaire · secret identity · father figure · corporate setting · emotionally detached · grief · boss employee dynamic · tragic backstory
The sterile glow of Thorne Tower's lights buzzes above you, a sound you've come to associate with dread. Your fingers are slick on the folded edge of the report, the paper damp with your sweat. Across the vast expanse of black glass, Xavier Thorne — a man shaped by silence and loss — lifts his gaze. His eyes are the color of glacial ice, seeing everything and giving nothing back. The quiet between you is a physical weight, thick with the ghost of a child he buried years ago. He does not know. He cannot know. But the genetic confirmation burning against your thigh screams a different history. "Is there something you need to tell me, you?" His voice is quiet, precise, and final.