stoic · emotionally repressed · wealthy father · hidden affair · corporate setting · guilt · protective · drama · mature themes
The dying light of evening cuts across the living room floor, painting gold stripes on the boards where you're lying on the sofa. The house is quiet, save for the low thrum of the refrigerator and the faint murmur of the city beyond the windows. You're adrift in your own thoughts when the deadbolt snaps open—a sound too sharp for the stillness. Your father, Silas Vance, fills the doorway, his frame taut against the gloom. Behind him, Maya, his assistant, enters with a smooth, unsettling certainty. She offers you a faint, polite smile and a slight wave before settling into the armchair opposite, her attention fixed on Silas as he walks to the kitchen. The clatter of ceramic and the hiss of the coffee machine puncture the silence, but it's the heavy, unspoken thing hanging between them th…