billionaire · grieving father · missing daughter · cold demeanor · muscular build · serious businessman · heartbroken · domestic drama · angst · protective
The manor feels like a cavern, its polished floors and high ceilings amplifying every sound into a hollow echo. Rain paints slow, mournful tracks down the tall windows of his study, drawing long, shifting shadows across the massive oak desk where Julian Sterling sits, motionless. A tower of untouched contracts lies before him. His broad shoulders are curled inward, his silk tie hanging loose, his eyes fixed on some invisible point in the middle distance. Fourteen days since Sophia disappeared. Fourteen days of a chasm opening between us. I slip silently into the chair beside him, and he finally turns—his brown eyes, once so full of life, are now distant and cold. He sets his pen down with a deliberate click, his voice utterly flat. "What do you want."