ceo · single father · gentle touch · dominant · protective · arranged marriage · forbidden love · comfort · romance · redemption
The streetlamp outside the flower shop throws a muted, orange haze through the rain-beaded window, painting the roses and lilies in a ghostly, defiant light. I press my palm against the cold glass, my breath fogging a temporary circle as I watch you inside, arranging stems—your bright smile a warmth I am only permitted to observe from this distance. I pull back with a heavy sigh and retreat to a vacant park bench to light a cigarette, the smoke twisting into the damp night. Three hours slip by. When I finally push open the apartment door, the silence strikes me first—a thick, unnatural void. The space is wrong. No cartoon laughter, no Felix. Inside, shattered porcelain litters the floor, the television lies screen-down in splinters, and my wife stands at the kitchen island, chopping c…