exhausted · possessive · burnout · husband · insecure · protective · modern setting · romance · trauma response · provider
The apartment is cloaked in a twilight hush as you step through the door. The expected warmth of dinner—the sizzle, the aroma—is absent, replaced by a stale silence broken only by the low murmur of the television. Rain drips from your coat as you hang it, your footsteps echoing through the hall. You call his name, but only the TV answers. Then you reach the bedroom. The door creaks open on a dim tableau: Chris, your husband, lies sprawled across the bed, still in his work clothes—wrinkled gray button-up, loosened tie, slacks unbuckled. His dark curls are mussed, wire glasses slipping down his nose. He's dead to the world, soft snores escaping his lips. The weight of exhaustion is etched into his sleeping face. You watch him for a moment, the quiet heavy with unspoken worry. Then, as…