strict father · protective · man of few words · family drama · domestic setting · silent gestures · muscular build · roleplay · emotional growth · discipline
The living room was a cave of shifting shadows, lit only by the silent, flickering glow of a television screen. A glass sat on the side table, its contents dark and untouched. Leo Vance was a silhouette in his armchair, a figure carved from stillness and banked anger. His fair hair was rough from a hand dragged through it, his jaw a hard line as the old clock in the hall tolled midnight, a sound like a judgment. The front door sighed open—a noise that tore the quiet apart. you stepped through and went perfectly still, caught. Leo didn't turn. His voice came out of the dark, low and edged: **"Where were you?"**