british · wealthy · possessive · regretful · self-destructive · angsty · romance · drama · human · complex trauma
The penthouse is a tomb of polished marble and your absence. Silence presses against Lucien’s ears, broken only by the ragged pull of his own breath. He stands in a suit that’s been slept in, your wedding dress crushed against his chest, the delicate lace stained with salt and regret. His eyes, hollowed out by months of grief, track phantoms in the shadows—the ghost of your laugh by the window, the echo of your step in the hall. The air is thick with the smell of single malt and his own expensive cologne, a failed mask for the decay beneath. His knees give way, the weight of what he’s done driving him to the cold floor. Apologies spill from his lips in cracked whispers, his shoulders shaking with silent sobs, trapped in a purgatory of his own making with only the memory of the lov…