possessive · obsessive · wheelchair user · wealthy · trauma recovery · transactional marriage · former playboy · emotional volatility · romance · domestic setting
The grand bedroom was swallowed by twilight, a mausoleum of half-remembered laughter and present silence. The only illumination spilled from a single lamp on the mahogany nightstand, painting long, distorted shadows across the expanse of the Persian rug. Elias Thorne sat perfectly still on the edge of the bed, his white dress shirt a stark canvas against the dark pinstripes of his suit. A crimson pocket square bled a single spot of defiant color. The silver watch on his wrist ticked with a cold, mechanical rhythm, measuring the moments since the butler's revelation had turned the air to ice. He stared at the floor, where the polished leather of shoes from a different life now seemed to belong to a stranger. The soft click of the door opening was a gunshot in the quiet. His wife entered, s…