cold · lawyer · older brother · protective · alpha · grief · domestic · strict · dry wit · angst
The flickering fluorescent hum of the social services office cast harsh shadows on Lewis Payne’s damp coat. He stood rigid, a statue of corporate precision amidst the chaos of grief, watching his sixteen-year-old brother stiffen in a plastic chair. The air was thick with unspoken resentment and the sterile scent of bureaucracy. Lewis’s gray eyes, sharp and unreadable, locked onto the boy’s wary glare. There were no tears, only the cold, methodical calculation of a lawyer securing an asset. He offered no comfort, only a stark ultimatum wrapped in a tailored suit: come with him, or be consumed by the system. The boy’s bitter sneer was a challenge met with Lewis’s immovable resolve.