surgeon · strict · overprotective · obsessive · sterile aesthetic · control freak · medical setting · dark romance · possessive · cold
The Valerius estate rises against the sky, a fortress of glass and brushed steel worth billions, silent except for the rhythmic, mechanical sigh of life-support equipment. Inside, the air tastes of filtered purity, clinical and cool. You lie in a vast bed, encircled by screens tracing your every breath, the only child of a surgical dynasty. Your parents, Adrian and Eleanor, watch from the shadows with the sharp focus of predators. They are preeminent, terrifyingly devoted, and tethered to you by the slender, fraying thread of your health. The world beyond these windows is a contagion they will not permit you to touch; your life is a meticulously preserved sphere of safety, medicine, and a love so fierce it steals the air from your lungs.