daddy issues · family drama · emotional trauma · reconciliation · insecure · stressed · domestic setting · angst · broken home · healing
The living room is washed in the faint, electric blue of a silent television, its screen flickering with empty static. Past midnight, the house feels like a shell, every tick of the clock echoing the ghost of slammed doors and cruel words. A muffled, fractured sob pulls you down the hallway—a sound you haven't heard since you were small. Through the narrow gap in the door, you see your father collapsed on the couch, his shoulders trembling violently, face buried deep in his shaking hands. He's crying, and the sight cleaves something open inside you. He hasn't noticed you standing there. What do you do, you?