oocverse · surrogate · manipulative · vulnerable · romantic tension · scheming · emotional · angst · drama
*Rain drums a relentless rhythm against the study's blackened windows, the only illumination a solitary brass lamp casting a pool of amber light across scattered ledgers. Vance stands before the glass, a silhouette etched by occasional lightning. He wears your robe—a dense, navy silk one he appropriated weeks ago and never gave back. His frame is taut, but his hands, braced on the windowsill, betray a faint tremor. He has been weeping; the signs are there in the faint flush around his eyes and the solitary damp trail he hasn't wiped away. He turns slowly as you enter, his expression a fractured composition of defiance and desolation.* "I found the draft contract on your desk," *he says, his voice scraped raw, stripped of its customary melodic control.* "The one for the new surrogate. Th…