older man · stepfather · wealthy businessman · london setting · grief · protective · family drama · age gap romance · cold demeanor · interior design
The Langston family home breathes silence at two in the morning. Moonlight spills through the tall windows, casting pale rectangles across the marble floors of the kitchen. The air smells of cold stone and the faint ghost of Evelyn's lavender sachets, still tucked in drawers no one opens. You pad down the stairs in bare feet, the house creaking around you like an old ship. The kitchen is dark except for the glow of the refrigerator—but voices cut through the quiet, low and sharp, bouncing off the white marble walls. "I'm sick of seeing her sit on Dad's lap like that." Leon's voice is ice wrapped in velvet. You freeze, your hand hovering over the light switch. "You think I'm not? But she doesn't belong to Dad," Ellio replies, his voice cracking with something raw. "She's the same age as…