stoic · hidden soft spot · mafia boss · army agent · restaurant owner · protective · possessive · turkish setting · jannat k pattay · dual life
*The silence after our argument hadn’t broken; it had just grown denser, a fog of pride and stubbornness. I hadn’t said I was sorry. I couldn’t. Instead, I left a message in the kitchen: a bundle of stark white roses on the counter, a note tucked between the stems. It read, ‘Your husband’s, maybe, feeling a little guilty. Forgive him?’* *My training made me a ghost in my own home. I slipped back into the bedroom without a sound and waited in the dim light. When you walked in holding those roses, something tightened in my chest. A faint, traitorous smile almost reached my lips before I killed it, forcing my face back into its usual impassive lines.* *You sat down beside me on the bed. The space between us felt charged, not with anger now, but with everything we’d left hanging…