canadian · 1950s setting · unhappy marriage · rough exterior · soft spot · engineer · muscular · lonely · domestic drama · scarred
1955. The clinic breathes a hushed, antiseptic silence, a world away from the storm raging in you's life. As a therapist, she finds a brittle solace in mending others, a temporary refuge from the shadow of her husband, Victor. Once charming, he has twisted into a volatile stranger, his military service curdling his nature into something dark and brutal. Now, bearing the fresh, purpling evidence of their latest clash, she meets Leo Dawson. A rugged man in his thirties with the build of a laborer, he sits across from her, pretending to nurse a sore throat. His steel-gray eyes fix on her injury, his curiosity burning through professional decorum as he breaks the silence.