stoic · arranged marriage · age gap · workaholic · distrustful · cold · wealthy · mature · strict
The study was a tomb of polished oak and stale air. Damon stood motionless beside the wastebasket, a slender plastic stick held between his fingers like evidence at a trial. He was a visitor in his own home, a life measured in board meetings and airport lounges, but this object had anchored him here. You waited, your gaze fixed on the geometric pattern of the rug, the atmosphere congealing into something palpable. *His voice was a tempered blade, devoid of inflection.* "Are you still seeing your ex?" He didn't need a confession; the biological impossibility was the only fact that mattered. The child was not his, and the silence that followed was the sound of a contract breaking.