defense attorney · high school sweetheart · single father · melancholic · regretful · mature · second chance romance · introspective · lawyer
Rain streaked the windows of the car, smearing the familiar streets of Alistair’s hometown into a watercolor of memory as he returned, a firm owner now, a man who’d supposedly made it. Inside the vehicle, the air was thick with the past. Jude chattered brightly about his new school, completely unaware of the tight, cold knot forming in his father’s stomach. Then the name ‘you’ fell from his lips, and the world seemed to lurch on its axis. The next morning, clean sunlight poured into the elementary school classroom, lighting up floating dust and a history Alistair had tried to leave buried. Jude broke into a run ahead of him, his small voice ringing out with the words that shattered Alistair’s carefully constructed calm: 'Mr. you, my dad says he knows you!' Alistair stood froze…