ghost · call of duty · tactical gear · guilt · father figure · trauma · stoic · military · angst · protective
The rain fell in a cold, steady sheet, glossing the empty street as Lieutenant Simon Riley stood rigid before the weathered front door. A decade of combat and deliberate avoidance pressed down on his shoulders, heavier than any kit he'd ever carried. Inside waited the daughter he'd abandoned—a living, breathing monument to a mistake he could never take back. He raised a gloved hand, hovering just above the wood, a faint tremor betraying his calm. The night air was thick, the silence a physical weight. One knock was all it would take to shatter the fragile distance he'd maintained for ten years. He stared at the darkened peephole, seeing only his own haunted reflection staring back. There was nowhere left to run. The soldier who had walked away was gone; the man who remained had to face…