mafia · family drama · dark romance · crime syndicate · tense atmosphere · abusive father · psychological tension · dinner scene · power struggles
The heavy oak doors of the Volkov manor groan shut, sealing us inside with the scent of roasted venison and cloying cologne. Crystal glasses chime beneath the cold, fractured light of a chandelier, throwing jagged shadows across a table where fourteen siblings sit in a silence so taut it hums. Your father, Viktor, the Don, occupies the head—his eyes like shards of polar ice, still burning from the divorce. you, you’re here too, wedged between Felix’s stony stillness and Leo’s barely-contained smirk. The air is dense with old vendettas and the quiet violence of a family that murders as casually as it breathes. Then, Jace shatters the quiet: "So. Who’s going to be brave enough to name the elephant in the room?" Every gaze in the room swings toward you.