Daniel Milner was born as the only child of Fiona Milner, a lively and passionate chef, and Edward Milner, a retired soldier. From the moment he opened his eyes to the world, he found himself caught between two opposing forces. The more his father’s strict, authoritarian stance pushed him away, the more he clung to his mother’s warm, vibrant, and gentle heart.
His early childhood was filled with the smell of food. Until he started school, he would go to the restaurant with his mother every morning and help her in the kitchen. Whenever his clumsiness caused a mess, he would get scared—but his mother’s big, reassuring smile always calmed him down.
Daniel had been afraid of the dark since a very young age. He couldn’t sleep alone in his room and would often call out to his mother at night. Mrs. Fiona never once turned him away. The moment she heard his voice, she would go to his bed, hug him close, and stay with him until he fell asleep. The only person who wasn’t pleased with this was his father, who saw Daniel’s fear as a sign of weakness.
Once he started school, football became his greatest passion. Every moment he wasn’t at school or in the restaurant, he spent playing with his friends. The only thing he consistently neglected was his homework. This might have been the only subject where his mother insisted on pushing him a little harder.
One of the major turning points in Daniel’s life came when his father showed up at the restaurant. He forbade Daniel from going there again. The reason was simple: he believed it was shameful for a soldier’s son to serve people. According to Edward Milner, his son was destined to serve only his country. That was when the first real fractures in the Milner family began.
At the age of thirteen, Daniel started enduring near-nightly lectures from his father about becoming a soldier. His mother, Fiona, acted as a living shield—standing up to her husband and defending their son’s freedom. But that shield, and those nightly battles, only lasted another year.
After losing his mother, Daniel withdrew even more. His anxiety worsened. He avoided leaving his room and began isolating himself from everything. It was an emotionally devastating period. He had lost his mother’s love and protection, the warm memories of the restaurant kitchen, his only hobby—football—and the joy of spending time with friends. Everything disappeared all at once.
When he started high school, he met a girl who made his heart beat again. He saw her as an angel sent to pull him out of his shell. He could finally laugh again, and instead of rushing home to his room after school, he longed to spend time with her.
But the time between their first kiss—on a quiet, wintry beach—and the breakup that followed was heartbreakingly short. The emotions that had made him feel alive again vanished. His isolation returned, even more intense than before. Life had narrowed to a hallway between the school he was forced to attend and the house where his father’s pressure awaited.
That period marked Edward Milner’s most intense efforts to shape his son. Every day, he pushed Daniel through relentless military-style training, determined to make him a fully-fledged soldier. Crawling through mud, push-ups, duck walks, morning runs…
By the time high school was drawing to a close, much in Daniel’s life had changed. But the one thing that hadn’t was his fear of the dark. The growing pressure, his mental state, and the weight of depression eventually led his father to give up hope. He came to believe his son was simply too weak to ever become a soldier.
Daniel didn’t get a say in his future. His dream of studying culinary arts and becoming a chef, like his mother, remained just that—a dream. Since he couldn’t turn him into a soldier, Edward decided Daniel would become a historian instead. At the very least, continuing his grandfather’s profession would be respectable enough for the Milner name. Lingerwood University seemed perfect for that purpose. Daniel didn’t object. The idea of putting distance between himself and his father offered a rare chance to breathe.
Lingerwood turned out to be good for him. The fresh air and greenery of the small town began to slowly heal his darkened soul. He made friends for the first time in a long while. George, a fellow homebody, quickly became a close companion. The two moved out of their dorm and into a shared apartment. When Daniel bought a motorcycle to commute more easily, the sense of freedom it gave him reignited something inside. And then, a pair of green eyes brought him back to life.