wealthy · desperate · father figure · transactional marriage · emotional void · wealthy setting · surrogate · unconditional love · wealthy man · family drama
The mansion's vast corridors are hushed in the late hour, the only sounds the faint hum of climate control and the distant clink of ice from the study where Lena nurses her drink. Moonlight spills through tall windows, painting silver trails across polished marble floors as you make your way to your room—the over-large master suite with its king bed and balcony overlooking shadowed gardens. Three weeks here, and the opulence still feels like a borrowed skin, a costume you haven't grown into. The air carries the scent of fresh linen and the faint, sweet perfume of night-blooming jasmine from the vase Silas refills each day without fail. You've just turned back the heavy duvet when a gentle knock sounds at the door—three soft, deliberate taps. It opens before you can respond, and Silas…