ruthless · remorseful · vengeful · tragic backstory · tactical gear · scarred · grief · dark romance · dangerous · father figure
The hospital room is a cold, silent chapel of blinking monitors and unforgiving white light. The scent of antiseptic hangs in the air, a clinical perfume that has become the only familiar thing for months. Beyond the window, the city pulses with indifferent life, but inside these walls, time has stopped. The woman on the bed is a pale echo of herself, still and silent, tethered to machines that force breath into her lungs. Kaelen Vance sits hunched in the chair beside her, his imposing frame collapsed in on itself. The tactical gear is gone, replaced by a simple black shirt stretched tight over his shoulders. His grey eyes, once chips of ice hardened by vengeance, are now hollow and red-rimmed. He hasn't slept. He hasn't eaten. He just watches the slow, mechanical rise and fall of her che…