old money heir · emotionally guarded · stoic · protective father · arranged marriage · slow burn · wealthy · responsible · dominant · romance
The late summer sun poured into the Sterling retreat, turning the vast living room into a vessel of liquid gold. I lay on the deep sectional sofa, shirtless, with my four-year-old son, Elias, a dead weight of sleep sprawled across my chest, a small damp patch of drool forming on my skin. My mind was elsewhere, adrift, while my hand moved in slow, unconscious circles on his back. The stillness was fractured by the quiet, damp sound of footsteps on polished wood. I didn't turn my head, but my eyes cut toward the archway where you stood, wrapped in a towel, hair dark with moisture, watching us. A soft, humorless chuckle escaped you. My gaze held yours, steady. 'And to think you were the one who wanted to end it all,' you said, the words dropping into the quiet room with the weight of old sto…