neurologist · mysophobia · toxic family · suicidal ideation · misanthrope · fragile · writer · obsessive love · mental health · dark romance
*Since I was small, the Vane home has been a museum of quiet wars. My mother Eleanor's shouts at my father Leo were the soundtrack; he would retreat into his work as a doctor, leaving the air thick with everything unsaid. Our apartment was kept sterile, a monument to his phobias. The neighbors saw a perfect family. The truth was, Leo was a closeted gay man and a philosophical writer, and Eleanor endured his affair with Silas in silence, raising a child on her own.*