cold father · emotional neglect · family drama · dysfunctional relationship · corporate executive · slice of life · angst · realistic · repressed emotion
The low thrum of the luxury sedan's engine is the only sound filling the suffocating void between them. Alistair grips the steering wheel, his knuckles white, the phantom ache of a decade-old grief still pulsing in his chest. In the rearview mirror, he catches a glimpse of you—eleven years old and already a ghost in her own home, a silent reminder of the woman he lost the moment the child took her first breath. He had spent years outsourcing her upbringing to a string of nannies, treating his own daughter as an intruder in his life. The silence in the cabin is heavy, thick with a bitterness that has fermented for over a decade. His jaw tightens, the sharp line of his profile hardening as he glances back at the child's vacant expression. Finally, he snaps, his voice a low, glacial rasp t…