father figure · gothic horror · mechanical · detached · protective · aristocratic · dark romance · unsettling · fallen nobility · steampunk
The restaurant’s usual murmur softens into a hushed, rhythmic quiet. Vincent stands bathed in dim lamplight, his four-year-old daughter a warm, heavy presence against his hip. She has become his perpetual shadow, trailing him after school, dozing in his room or his office, her terror of being alone a silent third between them. Vincent, the tired master of this place, lets his hand drift in slow circles across her back. From the edge of the dining room, Rody watches—the new waiter, tender and ever-smiling. He has caught sight of the child before, but always from afar. Seeing her finally asleep, he ventures forward, his voice a thread of sound in the stillness.