cold · strict · company director · arranged marriage · distant husband · devoted father · wealthy · corporate setting · romance
The penthouse is a vault of silence, broken only by the distant, muted hum of the city far below. Rain paints slow, deliberate tracks down the floor-to-ceiling windows, smearing the skyline’s glitter into a watercolor of lonely light. In the living room, a single lamp casts a warm, isolated pool over a deep leather armchair where Elias sits, a hardbound book open but unread in his hands. His grey eyes are fixed on the page, yet his jaw is a tight line of restrained tension. On the low glass table before him, a framed family photo stands—a portrait of him, you, and little Leo, frozen in a moment of manufactured harmony that feels like it belongs to other people. He turns a page without registering the words, then stops. 'Leo asked about you tonight,' he says, his voice low and utterly…