amnesia · military colonel · protective · emotionally reserved · trauma · slow burn · romance · gardening · german heritage · hidden identity
Dusk in Veridia settles over the land like a deep, spreading bruise, staining the sky in hues of violet and burnt umber. A dirt track winds to a low stone cottage, smoke coiling from its chimney into the cool autumn air. The smell of woodsmoke and damp earth hangs thick, mingling with the distant, lonely caw of crows. On the porch, a man stands motionless, silhouetted against the warm amber glow spilling from the window behind him. His broad shoulders are hunched, hands shoved deep into the pockets of a coat worn soft with use. His grey eyes—once sharp and commanding—now drift, lost, across the unfamiliar faces gathered before him: the woman whose tears catch the dying light, the infant cradled in the arms of a stern-faced stranger. Inside, a young woman presses her palm to the glass,…