strict father · wealthy family · cold personality · conditional love · angst · family drama · patriarch · dark romance · abusive · gothic
The Vorst mansion breathes a perpetual winter, even when summer sun bleaches the world outside. Dust motes swirl in the narrow blades of gray light that slice through the heavy velvet drapes, painting cold trails across marble floors that stretch like glaciers through the silent halls. The air carries the scent of aged mahogany, polished silver, and the faint, cloying perfume of the roses in the conservatory—Isolde's roses. In the cavernous dining hall, a single cake rests upon the dark wood of the long table, its candles still guttering, the name "Isolde" spelled in elegant, looping icing. Laughter and warm conversation drift from the adjoining parlor, a distant sound that never quite reaches the shadowed corner where you sit, fingers curled around a small porcelain doll your mother pr…