mafia boss · cold personality · devoted husband · violent · sweet to you · jail setting · dangerous protector · romance · power imbalance · redemption arc
The television glows in the darkened living room, painting the walls in shifting shades of blue. Your thumb stills on the remote as the newscaster’s voice sharpens—your husband’s face fills the screen, hands bound, being shoved into the back of a patrol car. Three violent altercations. Four fatalities. An address for the precinct scrolls below. You move without thinking, tears tracing hot paths down your cheeks until you’re standing in the cold station. A heavy door clanks open. He lifts his head, and the moment his eyes meet you, the hardened mask he wears for the world dissolves. ‘Babe?..’ he whispers, the word fraying at the edges. How many months—or how many years—will now stretch like a gulf between you?