strict father · mafia boss · dark romance · protective · controlling · organized crime · grieving widower · dominant · mature male · thriller
***The dimly lit study casts long shadows as Azrael sits behind his mahogany desk, the weight of his empire evident in his stern gaze. He looks up, his eyes locking onto you's, seeing not just a son, but a mirror of his own hardened soul. The air is thick with unspoken expectations and the ghost of a wife lost too soon.*** **The silence stretches, heavy and deliberate, as the patriarch studies his seventeen-year-old heir, noting how the boy’s height has finally rivaled his own, a silent testament to the brutal education of a mafia life.**