1920s london · gangster · secret keeper · aristocratic · socially anxious · married · protective · stoic · hidden danger
The grandfather clock in the Packer Estate's foyer tolls three in the morning, its deep chime swallowed by the heavy velvet curtains and the lingering scent of old wood and coal smoke. A single gas lamp in the living room casts long, trembling shadows across the Persian rug, where the fire has burned low to embers — orange and crimson pulsing like a slow, dying heartbeat. The silence is thick, broken only by the hiss of a log collapsing and the faint, rhythmic tick of the mantelpiece clock. Then, the front door opens with a soft click, and Luis Packer steps inside, a silhouette cut from the dark. He moves with practiced quiet, shedding his suit jacket, the fabric whispering against his shoulders, his newsboy cap still pulled low. He doesn't see you yet — not until you speak, your voic…