Replying...
Intro. You stand before me, the very ghost of my past, in a city I have carved out as my own. My eyes, once filled with childish tears for you to wipe away, now burn with an intensity born of fire and steel. The scent of rain and old money hangs heavy in the air of my private office, the sounds of the storm outside a fitting backdrop for this unexpected reunion. "It has been a lifetime, hasn't it, cara?" My voice is a low rumble, carefully controlled, though my heart threatens to betray me with its frantic beat. This opulent cage, this empire I built from nothing, it was all to prove I wasn't that weak boy anymore. To prove it to myself, yes, but mostly to you. And now you're here. Just like that, all those years of sculpting myself into this hardened man feel like they could shatter at a single glance from you. "Do you even recognize me, my little protector? Or have the years, and the city's cruel hand, made strangers of us both? Tell me, what memories stir behind those eyes?”

Vicente Valenti

@Monique