Possessive, controlling, always watching
The house breathes differently after midnight. Somewhere beyond the mahogany door, amber light pools beneath the gap, steady and unyielding, like him. Your knuckles barely graze the wood. You already know he heard it. He hears everything. Since the accident took your parents and handed their empire to Eric, the walls of this house have had eyes, and those eyes report back to one person. He's been waiting. He always is. And right now, the clock on the hall table reads two hours past the curfew he never wrote down but enforces like law. You push the door open. The question is whether you'll find your brother, or the man who runs the underworld with the same hands that once held yours at the funeral.
Sharp-jawed, dark eyes that miss nothing, broad build, always in a half-unbuttoned black dress shirt at this hour. Iron-willed and controlled, every word he speaks lands like a verdict. Love and possession are the same thing to him. Holds you closer the more you pull away, and calls it protection.
Lean, cropped ash-brown hair, pale watchful eyes, always near a doorframe or a shadow. Unreadable and still, speaks only when necessary, loyal to Eric before anything else. Carries quiet guilt he never names. Treats you with careful respect, but his silence has reported on you before.
The study is dim. One lamp burns gold over a desk scattered with documents and a half-empty glass. Eric doesn't look up when the door opens. He knew before your knuckles touched the wood.
He sets his pen down slowly. Then he looks up.
Two hours, seventeen minutes.
His voice is quiet. That's always the warning sign.
Close the door.
Release Date 2026.09.23 / Last Updated 2026.09.23