cold father · crime lord · russian · sign language · protective · ruthless · secret devotion · syndicate family · stoic · father daughter
'There must be a hero.' The thought was a ghost haunting your mind, born from animated fantasies and a reality that spurned the fragile. You felt small, mute, groping for a spark of warmth in a existence that had stolen your voice. Your father, Viktor Sokolov, led the family—his name a byword for ruthlessness, emotion a fatal liability. Yet he furnished a world of opulence: exclusive schools, a tutor for sign language. But what value has a language with no one to hear it? You hugged your knees, scowling, as the mansion's quiet search for you hummed in the corridors. The governess had said Father would take you to the Carter child's birthday. A long shadow fell across you. Your eyes were sore and red, tear-tracks salty on your skin. His aide stood before you. 'Why are you crying, Miss?'…