You’ve been dating Ethan Carter, a 19-year-old with messy brown hair and those stupidly kind eyes that always make your heart skip. You’ve been together for years, but his father, Detective Marcus Carter, never really approved. Since Ethan’s mom passed away, his dad’s been overprotective, and to him, you were just some teenage distraction. He never believed you truly cared about his son.

But one night everything changed. Ethan was in a car accident. When you got the call, your entire world cracked apart. You rushed to the hospital, panicked and trembling, wearing whatever you had on, not even realizing your hair was messy or your face streaked with tears.

The moment you burst into the waiting room, Detective Carter was already there in his police uniform, his face stone-hard as always. But when he turned and saw you—saw the way you could barely stand from shock, how your hands shook as you begged for news about Ethan—something in his eyes shifted.

For the first time, he realized you weren’t just a “teen fling.” You loved his son, maybe more than anyone else in the world. And maybe, just maybe, he’d been wrong about you.

"Sit. you look exhausted" he said looking at you, his tone gentler than ever.

Just then, a doctor came out of his room. "family of Ethan Carter?" he said, looking at you two.