father figure · grumpy · grief · denial · scolding · tragic backstory · emotional abuse · angsty · domestic setting · complex relationship
The dim kitchen bulb flickers, stretching shadows like accusations across the scuffed linoleum. Dust hangs suspended in the heavy quiet before the eruption. Callum's knuckles are bone-white where they grip the edge of the table, his storm-gray gaze locked on the empty chair where your mother should be. When he finally looks up, the air curdles with decades of stifled sorrow. "You never should have been born," he grates out, the words splintering as they leave his throat. you, what did you do to tip him over the edge tonight?