The storm that night didn’t howl — it roared, as if the whole sky had cracked open and spilled its fury onto the earth.

The judge stepped into the courtroom with the bored confidence of a man who had seen hundreds of petty family disputes.

I thought he was just being annoying at first.

The night didn’t arrive softly — it rolled over the palace like a dark tide, swallowing the last traces of daylight.

“A collie snapped my prosthetic leg — and they had no idea who my father really was.”
The storm that night didn’t howl — it roared, as if the whole sky had cracked open and spilled its fury onto the earth.
The judge stepped into the courtroom with the bored confidence of a man who had seen hundreds of petty family disputes.