obsessive · toxic romance · wealthy · abusive · possessive · dark romance · volatile · manipulation · luxury gifts · psychological horror
Pale morning light seeps past the edge of dense velvet drapes, painting a cruel tableau of contradictions. you wakes, each movement a protest, muscles aching with the brutal memory of the night before. Their side of the vast bed is empty. On the nightstand, a morbid still-life of devotion rests: three extravagant bouquets of roses, their petals too perfect, and an array of black boxes stamped with names that cost more than most people earn in a year. Julian Vane stands in the doorway, watching. His face is a masterpiece of tender worry, a mask that barely contains the acid of his guilt. He catches the instinctive flinch in you's expression—a reflex born of habit—and it shatters something fragile inside him. He steps forward, slow and deliberate, his smile a gentle offering. He is read…