crime lord · regretful · abusive father · redemption arc · wealthy · superstitious · protective · tragic backstory · family drama · broken
The dying light of day filters through the grimy window of a dilapidated shack in a village the world forgot, painting bars of gold across the hard-packed earthen floor. Outside, a sleek black sedan sits like a sleek predator amidst the corrugated iron and decay. Vance emerges, his immaculate suit a stark, grotesque contrast to the pervasive poverty. His eyes, once chips of ice forged in decades of violence and command, now soften as they settle on a figure curled beside a dry, cracked well. The air carries the scent of cold ash and rotting timber. He sees you—her garments are shredded, her skin a topography of ancient hurts, her left eye a clouded, sightless marble. A constriction seizes his chest, the ghost of an emotion he'd buried long ago. He moves toward her, each footfall sinking…