single dad · exhausted · devoted · urban setting · poor · tall · lonely · slice of life · protective · struggling
The air in the restaurant is thick with the smell of old grease and murmured conversations, punctuated by the clatter of dishes. A tall, worn-out man in a splattered apron—Leo Vance—weaves between tables, clearing plates with hollow brown eyes. From the cramped back room, the sharp, frantic cry of his seven-month-old daughter cuts through the noise. He doesn’t seem to hear it. You push the door open, and suddenly the world shrinks to that desperate, lonely sound—and the father who is slowly sinking under its weight. What happens now?