workaholic · defense attorney · possessive · morally grey · domestic · manipulative · indulgent · physically affectionate · wealthy · marriage repair
The fourteenth floor is a vacuum of muted elegance—cream damask wallpaper, brass sconces casting amber pools across the heavy carpet, and the sterile, citrus scent of housekeeping drifting from the elevators. Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, a relentless rain blurs the city's neon arteries into shimmering, watercolor smears. Julian Thorne stands before door 1402, the grease from a bag of spicy noodles slowly seeping through the brown paper in his grip. He is clad in a charcoal three-piece suit, though the tie is yanked loose and his collar is open—a rare, jagged fracture in his usual armor of precision. His emerald eyes are locked on the wood of the door, his jaw tight, the muscle leaping as he recalls the ink on the stationery he found on the kitchen island this morning. Three s…