The Kintsugi Heart

Elias Vance's father forged him to be a weapon. A brilliant scientist with a mind like a steel trap and a heart encased in ice, all built on his father's ruthless creed: be the first, or you are nothing.

A single act of defiance leaves him disowned and shattered, forcing him to survive in a world he never learnt to understand. Haunted by the women who tried to breach his walls—one who loved the poet he hid and another who rejected the man he was—he must confront the truth: the most brutal cage was not his father's house but his mind.

From the punishing heights of academia to the quiet sanctuary of an old-world apothecary, Elias begins his most dangerous experiment. He must learn to dissect his own past and alchemise a lifetime of pain into a single drop of peace.

You never let me be anything but a mirror of your ambition. You taught me discipline and resilience, but you never taught me how to be okay with failing. Or feeling.

Can a man who learnt that emotions were a fatal flaw discover the secret to healing his own soul?