- 2 days ago
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00She's chosen my husband instead.
00:01I wonder if she can handle the serpent's
00:04excessive affection.
00:06The Ashford betrothal gifts arrived quickly.
00:08They filled half the courtyard.
00:10Victoria didn't spare a glance
00:11for the serpent clan's meager offering.
00:13She sweet-talked Lady Hargrove
00:15into patting her trousseau until it groaned.
00:17Ivy told me that Victoria and her serpent
00:19had been meeting in secret.
00:21Someone had spotted them coming out of an alley together.
00:24Clothes barely clinging to them, her face still flushed.
00:27Half the street had seen it.
00:29She came to me the same afternoon, brimming.
00:31My fiance loves me.
00:33What does that have to do with you?
00:35This is just how he shows his love for me.
00:39And if you say a single word to mother about any of it,
00:42I'll make your life miserable.
00:45I just watched her go.
00:46She looked nothing like the girl she used to be.
00:48The softness was gone.
00:50Whatever innocence had been in her face
00:52had been thoroughly used up.
00:53On our wedding day, two wedding horse carriage
00:56left the estate together.
00:57Drums, horns, the whole performance.
01:00Adrian Ashford sat high on a pale horse in his wedding white,
01:04all clean lines and devastating bone structure,
01:07looking exactly like someone who knew it.
01:09I knew why he'd gone through with this.
01:10The matriarch once said to him,
01:12you are the only heir.
01:13You must marry a noble woman to continue the bloodline.
01:16That was the only condition for me to inherit the clan leadership.
01:19But his mistress was low-born, ineligible.
01:22He needed a proper wife.
01:24If she gave him a son first, better.
01:26Either way, he didn't lose.
01:27I set down my wedding bouquet.
01:28Two familiar figures had appeared at the side of the road.
01:32The boy lunged toward Adrian's horse.
01:34The word was barely out before a beautiful woman yanked him back
01:37and smothered his mouth with her hand.
01:38Forgive us, everyone.
01:40My son misses his father.
01:42He got confused.
01:43He didn't mean anything by it.
01:45Adrian pulled his reins top.
01:46He exhaled once.
01:48Today is my wedding.
01:49Can't you keep your child in hand?
01:51If he'd startled the horse carriage, I'd have had all your heads.
01:55Get them out of here.
01:56The woman's face went white.
01:57She bit her lip and stepped back.
01:59I'm so sorry.
02:00We're leaving.
02:01I wasn't about to let this dissolve quietly.
02:04Husband, don't be so hard on them.
02:07The child didn't mean any harm.
02:09And today is a happy occasion.
02:10Why not do a good deed?
02:12I actually need another servant woman as my side.
02:15If she's willing, she could come along with us.
02:17This woman had one obsession.
02:19Becoming Mrs. Ashford.
02:20Now that Adrian had taken a wife,
02:22she was already fraying at the edges.
02:24One of my people needed barely three sentences
02:26to maneuver her into showing up here today.
02:28If I offered her a door to the estate,
02:30she'd walk through it without thinking.
02:32She hesitated for half a breath,
02:34then looked away from Adrian's sharp warning stare.
02:37Thank you, ma'am.
02:38The carriage rolled on.
02:39She followed behind, boy in hand.
02:41The crowd murmured approvingly along the route.
02:43The new Mrs. Ashford is something else.
02:46Even after that scene, she finds them a position.
02:49Must run in the family.
02:51The Ashford's are good people.
02:53After the ceremony,
02:54I sat at my vanity and began fixing my hair.
02:56Ivy dismissed the others and shut the door,
02:58her face barely holding its composure.
03:01Ma'am, the master just had a servant
03:03quietly move that woman and boy into the side courtyard.
03:06I wasn't surprised.
03:08Ma'am, the Hawk Clan has rules
03:10against taking a second wife.
03:11And he's doing this on your wedding night.
03:14We could expose him right now.
03:15Go back to your family.
03:16End this before it starts.
03:18Calm down.
03:18I didn't come here to lose to a kept woman.
03:21I had no family worth running back to.
03:23No mother, no father who would take my side against the Ashfords.
03:26I'd walk through that gate as a piece on someone else's board.
03:30If I walked back out, I'd be spit on from every direction.
03:34I hadn't come all this way for nothing.
03:36What I wanted was the Ashford estate itself.
03:39Adrian could rot on the inside.
03:41I didn't need him to be good.
03:43I needed him to give me an heir.
03:45A knock at the door.
03:46I smiled at Ivy.
03:47My leverage just arrived.
03:49Adrian was drunk, but gracefully so.
03:52His steps wandered a little.
03:53It did nothing to make him less attractive.
03:56Ivy moved to steady him.
03:57He shrugged her off.
03:58I only want my wife.
03:59I swallowed the contempt rising in my chest and sent Ivy out.
04:03He played the part of a restrained gentleman, even when he was half gone.
04:07I had to admire the consistency.
04:09I took his arm.
04:10You've had too much.
04:12Should I have the kitchen send sobering soup?
04:14The kitchen sat close to the side courtyard.
04:16At this hour, they'd probably be preparing food for his little family.
04:20Adrian's shoulders went rigid.
04:22Then his hand caught mine.
04:23He buried his face against my shoulder.
04:26No.
04:27This is our wedding night.
04:29Don't leave.
04:30He let out a slow breath and lifted me.
04:32I looped my arms around his neck.
04:34In my past life, Adrian had used drunkenness as an excuse to avoid Victoria's wedding bed entirely.
04:40She'd had to fight for three months before he relented.
04:43And only after she humiliated herself back into his good graces.
04:47If this was going to happen eventually, I'd rather it happen on my terms and in my time.
04:52I let myself go still.
04:54Let my body stop resisting.
04:56Adrian's voice dropped.
04:57Whatever restraint he'd been maintaining came loose.
05:00The candles burned down to nothing before the room went quiet.
05:04I was too exhausted to move a finger.
05:06I passed out where I lay.
05:08He was the one who cleaned me up afterward.
05:10We were late for the morning tea ceremony.
05:12The matriarch was good-natured about it.
05:13She directed her mild scolding at Adrian, who was leaning back in his chair,
05:17looking thoroughly satisfied, in a generous mood for once.
05:20He cut her off to defend me before she could finish.
05:22And we had a Boku miss me.
05:25My fault entirely.
05:26I kept her up and told the staff not to wake her.
05:29Don't blame her, mother.
05:30My face burned.
05:32The matriarch laughed.
05:33She took the tea I offered with both hands.
05:34I knew I liked you the moment I saw you.
05:36I was half afraid they'd send that other girl.
05:39Luckily, she made a fool of herself so we could have the better bargain.
05:42You're the lady of this house now.
05:43These belong to you.
05:45There's no rush and nothing to be afraid of.
05:47If you need guidance, come to me.
05:48I kept my hands steady as I accepted them.
05:51With those keys, no one in this estate could question my standing.
05:54No one could use my birth against me.
05:56In my past life, as a wife in the serpent clan, I'd had to claw my way through sisters-in
06:01-law,
06:02who outranked me by blood and never let me forget it.
06:05It had taken months of careful maneuvering just to find my footing.
06:09That was behind me now.
06:10The matriarch saw my expression shift.
06:12She sighed softly and took the necklace off her own neck, placing it onto mine.
06:16This child has suffered enough.
06:18You treat her well from here on.
06:20I mean it.
06:21Adrian blinked.
06:22He looked at my slightly reddened eyes, and almost without meaning to, nodded.
06:25On the way back from the matriarch's rooms, I walked half a step behind Adrian,
06:28already thinking through which accounts to look at first.
06:30He spoke without turning around.
06:31What do you plan to do about that woman and the boy?
06:33And tucked my hand into the crook of his arm.
06:35I didn't realize you were so concerned about them.
06:37Isn't that sweet of you?
06:39He avoided my eyes.
06:40I just feel sorry for them.
06:41A widow with a child.
06:43Perhaps they could work in the outer courtyard, do some light tasks.
06:46The outer courtyard was full of staff.
06:47No one would track a woman's particular history there.
06:49Adrian would find ways to meet with her in private, use the crowd as cover.
06:52I exhaled slowly, as if thinking it through.
06:55A pretty woman with a child alone people might take advantage.
06:58You really haven't thought this through, have you?
07:00What if we put them somewhere quieter, near the garden behind the study?
07:04Adrian's brow tightened, almost imperceptibly.
07:06A long pause.
07:07Then his face settled into something soft.
07:09Good thinking.
07:10There's a small room off the study anyway.
07:11They can stay there.
07:12How thoughtful of you.
07:14I smiled.
07:14My nails were nearly through my palm.
07:16The study.
07:17He'd have every excuse to be near her.
07:18And the boy.
07:19He'd be able to teach him in private.
07:21Pass him what he needed to awaken properly.
07:23Adrian didn't notice.
07:24The careful coldness he usually wore had softened around the edges.
07:27In a few years, when our child comes, I'll make sure they have the best of everything.
07:30I leaned against him.
07:31The passing maids whispered to each other.
07:33The master and mistress.
07:35So in love.
07:36Rosalind heard it too.
07:37That same night, she went to find Adrian.
07:39And he turned her away at the door.
07:41Three nights in a row, he came to my room instead.
07:43He was decent enough to read the room.
07:45He didn't push past what I could manage.
07:52The day we returned to visit my family home, Victoria didn't arrive until almost noon.
07:56She swept into the room, glowing, cheeks high with color, trailing a thick cloud of powder and perfume.
08:01Lady Hargrove stared at her for a long moment.
08:03Don't fuss, mother.
08:05My husband spoils me.
08:06Very restorative herbs.
08:08She straightened.
08:08And I noticed that her figure had changed.
08:11Filled out in a way that read less like health and more like something under strain.
08:15She looked at me.
08:16Your husband runs cold, I hear.
08:18If he's distant with you, that's just how it goes.
08:20Don't take it personally.
08:22I said nothing.
08:23I took my time looking at her.
08:24She seemed bright on the surface, but her steps were unsteady.
08:26She kept touching her lower back without realizing it.
08:28That kind of bloom didn't come from nourishment.
08:30It came from something taking more than a physical.
08:32The serpent was greedy.
08:33When she noticed I wasn't reacting, something dark moved through her.
08:36She reached for me the way she used to when we were younger.
08:38To grab and drag.
08:40Adrian walked in.
08:41There was a smile in his eyes as he spoke to me gently.
08:43Elara, I just came from the room you used to live in.
08:48Victoria's hand froze in midair.
08:50She stared at Adrian in shock.
08:52Stunned by how different he was from the man in our previous life.
08:58How is this possible?
09:00Lady Hargrove's expression folded.
09:01They both knew.
09:02The room I'd been given in this house was barely a storeroom.
09:05The dishes had chips in them.
09:06Lady Hargrove laughed awkwardly and cut him off.
09:08Now that everyone's here, why don't we sit down for lunch?
09:11She looked at me.
09:12It was almost a plea.
09:13Once, when my birth mother had a bad fever and I'd gone to beg for a doctor,
09:17I'd knelt in the courtyard in the snow.
09:18The snow piled up on my shoulders while Lady Hargrove and Victoria stayed warm inside,
09:23laughing at something I couldn't hear.
09:24She finally came out when I nearly passed out.
09:26Get the doctor.
09:28Don't let her die in my yard, it's bad luck.
09:30The doctor came.
09:31He kept my mother alive a little longer.
09:32I held her hand and sobbed until I couldn't breathe anymore.
09:35Keep going.
09:37No matter how hard it gets, don't give up.
09:40I never got to go back to her.
09:42By the time I was reborn, she was already gone.
09:44I smoothed the front of my dress and stood up.
09:46Husband, let's eat.
09:48At the table, Victoria and the serpent fed each other and giggled like they were alone in the room.
09:52She shot me looks every few minutes, daring me to react.
09:54Lady Hargrove could see something was wrong.
09:56She kept trying to quietly reel Victoria in.
09:58Victoria snapped back, loud enough for the table to hear.
10:03My husband loves me.
10:05Am I supposed to be ashamed of that?
10:07Should I live like I'm already a widow?
10:09No!
Comments