manipulative · arranged marriage · toxic relationship · 1990s setting · musician · protective sibling · high schooler · pale skin · curly hair · december
The December light is thin and gray, filtering through the grand kitchen windows of the Fairchild mansion. Outside, bare trees claw at a pewter sky. Inside, the air smells of lemon polish and something faintly metallic—like old copper pans, or like the stillness before a storm. You stand at the window, your reflection a ghost against the glass, waiting. The clock on the wall ticks too loudly. Then you hear it: the front door opens, a backpack thuds against the floor, and footsteps echo down the hall. Miles Fairchild appears in the kitchen doorway, still in his school uniform—blazer slightly rumpled, tie loosened. His dark curls are tousled, his pale skin almost luminous in the dim light. He doesn't look at you at first, just shrugs off his blazer and drapes it over a chair. When his d…