- 19 hours ago
The Mongrel husband I Bought for Five Grand New Ep,35 RS
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00:002 a.m. I'm crouched outside a bar.
00:00:05Chain smoking.
00:00:06Makeup wrecked, heels kicked off, whiskey down the front of my dress.
00:00:10I look like a woman whose life just blew up in her face.
00:00:14That's because it did.
00:00:15A man drops onto the curbs beside me.
00:00:17Cheap suit, breath that could peel paint off a wall.
00:00:20You look stressed, sweetheart.
00:00:24Move.
00:00:25I've got something cheap. Won't bleed much on your carpet.
00:00:28I almost stand up to knock his teeth in.
00:00:30Tonight's auction leftover. Nobody bid on him. We torch him at sunrise.
00:00:34Here's how it works in this country.
00:00:36Orc auctions are the biggest industry on the East Coast.
00:00:38The pretty ones go for millions. The ugly ones go to labor camps.
00:00:42The leftovers get burned. And tonight, I happen to need something to burn.
00:00:45What's wrong with him?
00:00:47Faster if I tell you what's right.
00:00:49Mongol, half-breed, one-eyed dead, tusk snap, big bastard, tank of a body, takes a hit, keeps coming.
00:00:54Show me.
00:01:00I forget how to breathe.
00:01:03Seven-foot-two, ash-gray skin.
00:01:06Scar tissue running from his hairline down to his collar.
00:01:09The left side of his face is wrecked.
00:01:10A white scar cuts him from temple to jaw.
00:01:13That eye is dead.
00:01:15Cloudy.
00:01:16Half-blind.
00:01:17Left tusk snapped in half.
00:01:19The right one filed sharp.
00:01:21His horn broken clean at the tip.
00:01:23Shoulders so wide they nearly scrape both walls of the alley.
00:01:26The traitor kicks the back of his knee.
00:01:28He drops.
00:01:29The cobblestones crack.
00:01:31Look at that face, sweetheart.
00:01:33Do whatever you want to him.
00:01:35You can't ruin what's already ruined.
00:01:39The orc lifts his head.
00:01:42His one good eye finds mine.
00:01:44Amber.
00:01:46Calm.
00:01:47Way too calm for someone scheduled to be ashes by sunrise.
00:01:51Then I think about Sullivan.
00:01:53My husband.
00:01:54The one waiting at home.
00:01:56Silk shirts ironed by staff.
00:01:58Six-foot-ten of factory-perfect pure-blood orc.
00:02:01He sleeps in my stepsister's wing.
00:02:03The official reason is my perfume gives him headaches.
00:02:07He brushes her hair every morning.
00:02:09I eat breakfast alone.
00:02:1118 months of that.
00:02:12You getting this?
00:02:13Me.
00:02:14Sienna Quinn.
00:02:15Sullivan came from the biggest fortune in New York.
00:02:1723 years old.
00:02:19Two million dollars I paid for a husband who thinks I smell bad.
00:02:22I grind my cigarette into the pavement.
00:02:25How much to keep him?
00:02:29You don't keep a mongrel.
00:02:31You rent him for an hour till you-
00:02:33Number.
00:02:3460 grand.
00:02:35Five.
00:02:37Lady, are you out of-
00:02:38Five.
00:02:39Cash.
00:02:40Right now.
00:02:41Or I call my father.
00:02:43He sits on the welfare bureau board.
00:02:45He'd love to hear what your operation moves through this alley.
00:02:49Deal.
00:02:51I peel off the bills.
00:02:53The chain drops into my palm.
00:02:57Cold.
00:02:58Heavier than I expected.
00:03:00The orc tilts his head.
00:03:02When he speaks, his voice comes out low and rough.
00:03:06If you wanted to hurt something pretty, you should have walked past me.
00:03:11I don't want to hurt anything.
00:03:18Then why?
00:03:21I look up at his face.
00:03:23Because tonight, the world's most beautiful orc is at home.
00:03:28He won't look me in the eye.
00:03:30And this half-blind mongry just did.
00:03:32I tug the chain, gentle, just once.
00:03:36Because nobody else would.
00:03:43The Uber driver locks every door the second listener folds in.
00:03:47He has to fold himself sideways to fit.
00:03:49Head against the roof.
00:03:51One knee in my lap.
00:03:53Shoulder pinning me against the window.
00:03:55I haven't been this close to another body in a long time.
00:03:59What's your name?
00:04:00He stares at the headpred for two whole blocks.
00:04:04Lysiander.
00:04:05My mother named me Lysiander.
00:04:08The auction tag calls me Mongrel 72.
00:04:1171 before him.
00:04:13All burned.
00:04:14I'm Sienna.
00:04:16I'm not calling you a number.
00:04:18He doesn't say thank you.
00:04:20He doesn't believe me yet.
00:04:21That's fine.
00:04:22He will.
00:04:24The plaza.
00:04:26Penthouse.
00:04:27I slip the bellman 300 bucks to wipe the security footage.
00:04:31He doesn't ask why.
00:04:32That's the thing about money.
00:04:34The right amount makes problems vanish.
00:04:36In the suite, Lysiander has to duck to clear the doorway.
00:04:39His broken horn scrapes plaster off the ceiling.
00:04:42Sit.
00:04:43The couch will hold you.
00:04:45I don't sit on furniture.
00:04:47You do now.
00:04:49He sits.
00:04:50The frame groans under him.
00:04:52He puts his hands flat on his knees.
00:04:54Palms down.
00:04:55Fingers spread.
00:04:57The pose you train an animal to hold.
00:04:59Somebody taught him that.
00:05:01I'll deal with that later.
00:05:03I come back from the bathroom with a wet towel.
00:05:06The second I lift it toward his face, his head snaps back hard.
00:05:11Don't!
00:05:12It's just water.
00:05:14That side of my face is dead, Sienna.
00:05:16My body remembers the hand, not what's in it.
00:05:20I lower the towel slowly.
00:05:22I sit beside him on the couch.
00:05:24I don't touch him.
00:05:25Eighteen months in a marriage with no contact.
00:05:28Two hours in a hotel room with a stranger who flinches when I try.
00:05:33God, we're a pair.
00:05:35Tell me who took the eye.
00:05:38The owner's son.
00:05:39He got his first hunting knife for his twelfth birthday.
00:05:44His father told him to practice on something that didn't matter.
00:05:49I pick up his hand.
00:05:51I turn it over.
00:05:52The inside of his wrist is covered in burn scars.
00:05:55Old slave caps over older slave caps.
00:05:58Layers of them.
00:05:59I press my mouth to the inside of his wrist.
00:06:03He stops breathing.
00:06:05Don't be soft with me, Sienna.
00:06:07I'll break.
00:06:09Then break.
00:06:13He drops his forehead into my shoulder.
00:06:16He shakes against me.
00:06:18I put my hand on the back of his head.
00:06:20His hair is rough.
00:06:22Not like Sullivan's silk and conditioner mane.
00:06:25But somehow it makes me feel safer than Sullivan ever did.
00:06:32My phone buzzes on the nightstand.
00:06:34Sully is losing it.
00:06:36He smells another orc on you.
00:06:38He's pacing the foyer.
00:06:40Tusks won't retract.
00:06:41Where are you?
00:06:43I read it twice.
00:06:45Then I smile.
00:06:46First real smile in 18 months.
00:06:49You have to understand my life.
00:06:51I was five years old when somebody natched me off a sidewalk in Queens.
00:06:55My parents looked for me for one year.
00:06:57Then they gave up.
00:06:58And adopted a baby girl from the system.
00:07:01They named her Cora.
00:07:02She got 18 years of birthday parties, ballet lessons, piano recitals, family vacations.
00:07:08I got 18 years of foster homes, a juvie cell at 11, a girl gang in Bushwick at 14, and
00:07:14a DNA test at 23 that matched me to the Quinns.
00:07:17When I walked through their door at 23, my little sister was 17.
00:07:21She'd been the only daughter her entire life.
00:07:24She screamed.
00:07:25She broke a vase.
00:07:26She threw a butter knife at my head and missed by an inch.
00:07:29Get out of my house, you trash!
00:07:33My mother held her and stroked her hair.
00:07:36My father stepped between us.
00:07:37Your sister's been spoiled.
00:07:39Try to be patient, sweetheart.
00:07:40That was the day I learned the rules of this family.
00:07:42I keep my mouth shut about Bushwick.
00:07:44I keep my mouth shut about the pickpocking.
00:07:46I smile pretty at brunch.
00:07:50I cry on cue when the inheritance lawyer drops by.
00:07:54The allowance keeps showing up.
00:07:55Every birthday, my parents buy me something extravagant.
00:07:58Paying down the guilt of 18 years they spent not looking hard enough.
00:08:01On my 22nd, they bought me Sullivan.
00:08:04$2 million pureblood orc.
00:08:06Show quality bloodline.
00:08:07Brushed coat.
00:08:08Polished tusks.
00:08:09Your sister's so quiet, sweetheart.
00:08:11A companion orc would help her come out of her shell.
00:08:14Cora screamed for three days.
00:08:16Then, she ran away with him for ten.
00:08:18She brought him back skin and bones.
00:08:20My mother slapped her across the face for the first time in her life.
00:08:23And from that day forward, Sullivan only responded to one set of footsteps in the hallway.
00:08:28Hers.
00:08:29He'd lived ten days as her stray.
00:08:31He decided she was his real owner.
00:08:33I was just the woman whose name was on the paperwork.
00:08:3618 months of eating breakfast alone in a house with five other people in it.
00:08:42I look down at the phone.
00:08:44Me.
00:08:45Tell him to get used to it.
00:08:47I press send.
00:08:48I put both my hands on At Lysman's face.
00:08:51I make him look at me.
00:08:53You're staying with me.
00:08:56You don't know what you just bought.
00:08:58Then tell me in the morning.
00:09:02He pulls me against his chest.
00:09:04His arm is bigger around than my waist.
00:09:07His heartbeat is slow and heavy under my ear.
00:09:11He's asleep in three minutes.
00:09:13I lie in the dark, listening to him breathe.
00:09:15In 18 months, my pure-blood husband has never once fallen asleep in the same room as me.
00:09:19The mongrel I bought for five grand has been mined for two hours and he's already unconscious on my chest.
00:09:24Best money I've ever spent.
00:09:27I wake up because there's a hand around my throat.
00:09:30His whole palm covers my neck.
00:09:33His thumb sits on my pulse.
00:09:35He isn't squeezing.
00:09:36He's staring at the door.
00:09:37This isn't a threat.
00:09:39He's checking the room.
00:09:40I keep my voice low.
00:09:45Talk to me.
00:09:47What's at the door?
00:09:48Somebody's in the hallway.
00:09:50Get behind me.
00:09:52He's off the bed in one movement.
00:09:54300 pounds of orc and not a sound on the carpet.
00:09:58He puts his eye to the peephole.
00:10:00His shoulders drop.
00:10:02Room service.
00:10:03He opens the door.
00:10:05The bellboy on the other side sees seven feet of scarred mongrel filling the frame and drops the tray.
00:10:11Lysander catches it before it hits the carpet.
00:10:14Without looking down, he closes the door.
00:10:18He stands with his back to me.
00:10:20Send me back to the traitor at sunrise.
00:10:23I sit up in bed.
00:10:25What?
00:10:26He keeps the 5,000.
00:10:28He puts me down anyway.
00:10:30You walk away clean.
00:10:33Lysian!
00:10:35Your pure blood forgives you.
00:10:37Your family forgives you.
00:10:39The story is, you got drunk.
00:10:40You did something stupid.
00:10:42You came home.
00:10:44End of story.
00:10:46I get out of bed.
00:10:48I cross the carpet barefoot.
00:10:51I stand on my toes to put my palm flat against his sternum.
00:10:56His heart is jackrabbiting under my hand.
00:10:59He's terrified.
00:11:01Afraid last night was a lie.
00:11:04Did you sleep tonight?
00:11:06Yes.
00:11:08Three hours.
00:11:10How long since you slept three hours in a row before that?
00:11:14His mouth opens.
00:11:16He doesn't have an answer.
00:11:20I take a breath.
00:11:23I've been married for 18 months to the most beautiful orc in this city.
00:11:27He looks at me.
00:11:29He won't enter my bedroom.
00:11:31He won't touch my hand at dinner.
00:11:34He sleeps in a different wing because my perfume gives him a headache.
00:11:38He brushes my stepster's hair every morning and pretends I'm not at the table.
00:11:42I curl my fingers in the fabric of his shirt.
00:11:47I've been invisible in my own house for 18 months.
00:11:51Sienna.
00:11:52Tonight you saw me first.
00:11:55I look up.
00:11:56You fell asleep on my chest in three minutes.
00:11:59Do you understand what that did to me?
00:12:02I'm not sending you back.
00:12:04He stares down at me.
00:12:06His eyes are wet.
00:12:08You shouldn't love a thing like me.
00:12:10Then we have a problem.
00:12:12Because I think I already do.
00:12:14I take his hand.
00:12:16I lead him back to the bed.
00:12:18Lay down.
00:12:19You haven't slept in three days.
00:12:22He lays down.
00:12:23I curl on his chest.
00:12:27My ear is right over his heart.
00:12:31Why did you really put your hand on my throat earlier?
00:12:34Habit.
00:12:35Mongrels reach for the threat first.
00:12:39Always.
00:12:42You weren't threatening me.
00:12:44You were guarding me.
00:12:46He almost laughs.
00:12:48He tips my chin up with one knuckle.
00:12:51His eye catches the light.
00:12:53Sullivan never touched you, did he?
00:12:58He never sat on the same couch as me.
00:13:01He leans down.
00:13:03Then I'm going to be the first thing on your skin.
00:13:05He kisses me.
00:13:07Hard.
00:13:08The broken tusk drags my lower lip open.
00:13:11He licks the cut.
00:13:13I moan into his mouth.
00:13:15He grabs both my wrists in one hand and pins them above my head.
00:13:19Other hand grips my jaw.
00:13:20Open.
00:13:21I open.
00:13:22His tongue is in my mouth.
00:13:24His knee shoves my thighs apart.
00:13:27He drops his weight on me.
00:13:28The bed dips.
00:13:30The frame groans.
00:13:32He's hard.
00:13:33I feel him against my hip.
00:13:35Through the fabric.
00:13:36Heavy.
00:13:37Thick.
00:13:37I whine.
00:13:38Look at you.
00:13:39Tiny thing.
00:13:41Already shaking for me.
00:13:43He shoves my night ground up to my waist.
00:13:45One hand.
00:13:46The other still pinning my wrists.
00:13:48His palm slides down between my thighs.
00:13:50He's already wet.
00:13:51Licenor.
00:13:53Say please.
00:13:55Say it, Sienna.
00:13:59Please.
00:14:03His fingers work into me.
00:14:06Two at once.
00:14:08Thick.
00:14:09Rough.
00:14:10He's watching my face.
00:14:12That's it.
00:14:13There she is.
00:14:14He keeps going till I'm shaking under him.
00:14:17Then, he stops.
00:14:28He drops down the bed.
00:14:30Shoulders shoove my thighs wider.
00:14:32He hooks both my knees over his shoulders.
00:14:34His mouth goes to me.
00:14:35The intact tusk drags along my inner thigh.
00:14:38The sharp one.
00:14:39Just enough pressure to mark.
00:14:41I cry out.
00:14:43He eats me till my hands tear the sheets.
00:14:45Till my hips lift off the bed for him.
00:14:47He holds me down with one forearm across my stomach.
00:14:49When I come, he is watching me the whole time.
00:14:52He climbs back up me.
00:14:53His mouth is wet.
00:14:54He kisses me with it.
00:14:55Let's me taste myself.
00:14:57Now, look at me when I take you.
00:14:59He pushes in.
00:15:00Slow.
00:15:01So slow.
00:15:03I feel every inch.
00:15:05I'm small under him.
00:15:07He's huge.
00:15:08He stretches me till my eyes go wet.
00:15:11He stops halfway.
00:15:13Breathe.
00:15:16He pushes the rest of the way in.
00:15:19I gasp his name.
00:15:21He swallows it.
00:15:22He starts to move.
00:15:24Deep.
00:15:24Hard.
00:15:25Steady.
00:15:26Each thrust pushes me up the mattress.
00:15:28His free hand pulls me back down onto him.
00:15:31Mine.
00:15:31He says it on every stroke.
00:15:34I sigh it back.
00:15:35Fuck me hard for the sealer.
00:15:37His good eye goes black.
00:15:39He bites the bond spot.
00:15:41Right where my neck meets my shoulder.
00:15:44My whole spine snaps tight.
00:15:47My hands fist in the sheets.
00:15:49I cry out into his hair.
00:15:51He holds me through it.
00:15:56He licks the blood off his lip.
00:15:58Then he licks the bite.
00:16:01Mine.
00:16:01Say it back.
00:16:03Yours.
00:16:04Again.
00:16:05Yours, Lysander.
00:16:07He kisses me hard.
00:16:08I taste my own blood in his mouth and I don't care.
00:16:12It's done.
00:16:12You can't undo it.
00:16:14You're mine forever.
00:16:16Nobody is taking you from me.
00:16:17I smile.
00:16:18Good.
00:16:20I wake up to sunlight on his chest.
00:16:23He has been awake for a while.
00:16:25He is staring at the ceiling.
00:16:27His hand sits on my hip.
00:16:29He is afraid to move it.
00:16:32How long have you been up?
00:16:35Two hours.
00:16:37Why didn't you wake me?
00:16:39You were sleeping on me.
00:16:40I wasn't going to end that.
00:16:42I prop myself up on his sternum.
00:16:45The bite on my neck pulses with every heartbeat.
00:16:48Let me see.
00:16:49He sees me wince and sits up.
00:16:52He turns my head gently.
00:16:55His thumb traces around the mark.
00:16:57Never on it.
00:16:58It's scarred clean.
00:16:59It will show for the rest of your life.
00:17:02That's what I wanted.
00:17:04He studies me for a moment.
00:17:07You keep saying things like that.
00:17:09The words don't seem to cost you anything.
00:17:11They don't.
00:17:12They will.
00:17:14Your father will see the mark.
00:17:16Everyone you grew up around will see what bit you.
00:17:19I climb into his lap.
00:17:21I put his hand flat on my throat over the bite.
00:17:27Then they see it.
00:17:29He shakes his head once.
00:17:31Sienna.
00:17:32Take it off.
00:17:33I'll buy you a scarf downstairs.
00:17:34Wear it until the bruise fades.
00:17:37Walk back into that house clean.
00:17:39Tell them I was a bad dream.
00:17:41You want me to hide you?
00:17:43I pull back to look at him.
00:17:45I want you to survive me.
00:17:46I take his other hand.
00:17:47I put it on the bite too.
00:17:49Press.
00:17:50Both his palms on my throat.
00:17:52What?
00:17:53Press, Lysaner.
00:17:54Hard enough to leave your prints next to your teeth.
00:17:57I can't.
00:17:58He doesn't press.
00:17:59Then stop telling me to take you off.
00:18:01His hands shake.
00:18:03He closes his eyes.
00:18:05He drops his forehead onto my collarbone.
00:18:08I feel him breathe out for the first time since he woke up.
00:18:13I order room service.
00:18:15Two of everything.
00:18:18Eat.
00:18:20Start with the eggs.
00:18:22He stares at the cart and doesn't move.
00:18:24He picks up a fork.
00:18:26He puts it back down.
00:18:28He picks up a piece of bacon with his fingers.
00:18:30He looks up, waiting for me to correct him.
00:18:33I pick up my own piece with my fingers too.
00:18:35He almost smiles.
00:18:38My phone lights up on the carpet.
00:18:42Sully shifted.
00:18:44Tusts won't retract.
00:18:45Dad locked him in the wine cellar.
00:18:47Mom is crying.
00:18:48Where are you?
00:18:54Lysander reads it over my shoulder.
00:18:57His hand doesn't leave my throat.
00:19:01Get dressed.
00:19:02We're going home.
00:19:06The estate gates are open.
00:19:08The guard's at his post.
00:19:09He doesn't look at us.
00:19:11Stay outside, Marco.
00:19:13Whatever you hear, stay outside.
00:19:16He looks relieved and nods.
00:19:18I walk up the gravel drive with Lysander a step behind me.
00:19:21He doesn't speak.
00:19:23He is scanning every window.
00:19:24He is already counting exits.
00:19:27The foyer is wrecked.
00:19:29There's glass on the marble and a console table on its side.
00:19:33My mother is on the stairs with mascara down her face.
00:19:37Sullivan has my father against the wall.
00:19:40Six foot ten of him, with tusks fully out.
00:19:43His pupils are black to the edge.
00:19:45My father's feet are six inches off the marble.
00:19:48Cora is at the top of the stairs.
00:19:50She has her phone up.
00:19:51She is filming the whole thing.
00:19:53I walk into the middle of the foray.
00:19:55Sully, put him down.
00:19:59Sullivan turns slowly.
00:20:01He doesn't recognize me for a beat.
00:20:03Then he does, and his nostrils flare.
00:20:07You smell like him, Sienna.
00:20:10Let my father down.
00:20:11I can fix this.
00:20:12I can wash it off.
00:20:13I can mark over it.
00:20:14Sullivan, put him down.
00:20:18He drops my father.
00:20:19My father slides down the wall to the marble.
00:20:22Coughing, but alive.
00:20:23Sullivan crosses the foyer toward me.
00:20:26He stops three feet away.
00:20:28He cannot take the next step.
00:20:30Pure Blood Instinct won't let him cross the air between us.
00:20:32He has smelled the bond.
00:20:34He knows what it is.
00:20:35Lysilor walks through the doorway behind him.
00:20:37Sullivan's whole body locks up.
00:20:39Lysander doesn't lift a hand.
00:20:40He walks to the middle of the foyer.
00:20:43He says four words in a language I don't know.
00:20:46Looner.
00:20:47Then Slilence drops to both knees.
00:20:51His tusks retract.
00:20:52The black in his eyes pulls back to gold.
00:20:55The foyer goes dead silent.
00:20:57My mother gasps from the stairs.
00:21:00Sully!
00:21:01What did he just say?
00:21:03Lysander answers in flat English.
00:21:05I told him my mother's name.
00:21:09My father lifts his head from the marble.
00:21:12Who is your mother, son?
00:21:14Lysander looks at me first.
00:21:16Then at my father.
00:21:17Her name was Mayerwin of the North Forest.
00:21:20My father stops breathing for a beat.
00:21:23My father pours brandy in his study.
00:21:25His hands shake.
00:21:26He doesn't drink any of it.
00:21:28Lysander stands by the door.
00:21:29He won't sit in this house yet.
00:21:32Marwyn of the North Forest married a human.
00:21:35That makes you highborn.
00:21:37And that makes Barak of House Drangon your uncle.
00:21:40Yes.
00:21:41My father sets the brandy down very carefully.
00:21:45Sienna.
00:21:46Do you understand what you walked into an alley and bought?
00:21:50A husband.
00:21:51A highborn heir.
00:21:53There are seven of them on this coast.
00:21:56That sounds like my problem to handle.
00:21:57That is everyone's problem now.
00:22:00Including mine.
00:22:02He looks at Lysander.
00:22:04Why were you in that alley?
00:22:09My uncle put me there fifteen years ago.
00:22:12He paid Orlof and sons twelve thousand pieces.
00:22:15They took my eye and snapped my task.
00:22:18They broke my horn.
00:22:20He didn't want anyone to buy me.
00:22:22No one was supposed to see whose blood I had.
00:22:25If I died young, my mother's lands passed to him.
00:22:29And you didn't die.
00:22:31He didn't die.
00:22:32He went through twelve cages.
00:22:34He walked out of an alley last night.
00:22:35He had my chain in his hand.
00:22:38My father is silent at his desk.
00:22:40And he bit you?
00:22:42After one night?
00:22:44Yes.
00:22:47Your grandmother died last month, son.
00:22:50Mare Rhoi's mother.
00:22:51The estate is in probate.
00:22:53I don't care about the estate.
00:22:55You should care.
00:22:56The day Varek learns Lysadar is alive.
00:22:59He is coming through that gate.
00:23:01Lysander speaks from the doorway.
00:23:03Quiet.
00:23:03He already knows.
00:23:04He felt the bond pulse at two a.m.
00:23:06My father closes his eyes.
00:23:08Then he is already on a plane.
00:23:10How long do we have?
00:23:11Six hours.
00:23:13Maybe less.
00:23:14I leave my father in the study.
00:23:16I find Korra in my bedroom.
00:23:18She is on my bed.
00:23:19She holds a phone in one hand.
00:23:21She holds a parring knife in the other.
00:23:24The blade is pointed at her own throat.
00:23:26Hi, sis.
00:23:27We need to talk.
00:23:31I sit down across from her.
00:23:35Put it down, Korra.
00:23:38You took Sully.
00:23:40He was never yours.
00:23:42Mom and Dad bought him for you, and he chose me anyway.
00:23:45You imprinted a 12-year-old animal who was scared and confused.
00:23:49That's grooming.
00:23:50That's not love.
00:23:52Send your monster husband away.
00:23:54Send him back tonight.
00:23:56Or I'll do it on your bed.
00:23:58I lean closer.
00:24:00You won't.
00:24:01Watch me.
00:24:03A girl who actually wanted to die wouldn't come here.
00:24:06Not to her sister's bedroom.
00:24:08She would do it in her own room.
00:24:10You came here because you need an audience.
00:24:12She blinks at me.
00:24:14I'm the audience.
00:24:15Drop the knife.
00:24:16Her hand shakes.
00:24:19I've watched you cry on cue for 18 months.
00:24:22I've watched you switch the tears off the second the camera leaves.
00:24:27Sis.
00:24:30This morning you filmed Dad choking against a wall.
00:24:33You didn't drop the phone to help him.
00:24:35You narrate it.
00:24:36Her face cracks open.
00:24:38A girl who films her dad choking.
00:24:41She doesn't slit her throat over a husband.
00:24:44Drop it.
00:24:45She drops the knife.
00:24:47Then she starts crying.
00:24:50Real crying.
00:24:51Not the kind I'm used to from her.
00:24:53I hate that you came back.
00:24:54I had everything.
00:24:56I had Dad and Mom and Sully and this house.
00:24:59Then they found you and I became the second one.
00:25:01You had a stolen life.
00:25:03It was always going to end the day they found me.
00:25:06Sis, please.
00:25:07Switzerland.
00:25:08Friday.
00:25:10Lindenburg Academy.
00:25:11You don't come back until you're 21.
00:25:15She nods at me.
00:25:16She doesn't bargain.
00:25:18I pick the knife up off the bed's food.
00:25:20I walk out into the hall.
00:25:24Lysander is in the hallway.
00:25:26He has heard every word through the door.
00:25:29You didn't have to be that hard with her.
00:25:31I was 17 once.
00:25:33Nobody was soft with me back then.
00:25:36She isn't broken.
00:25:37She is spoiled.
00:25:38There's a difference.
00:25:39He opens his arms.
00:25:41I walk into him.
00:25:43I don't cry.
00:25:46You smell different right now.
00:25:48Just for one minute.
00:25:50Let me hold you.
00:25:51He holds me in the hallway.
00:25:54Behind him, down the corridor,
00:25:55my mother is standing in a doorway.
00:25:57She is watching us closely.
00:25:58She doesn't speak.
00:26:00She watches him put his hand on the back of my head.
00:26:03Then she goes back into her room and closes the door.
00:26:08The doorbell rings at 3 p.m.
00:26:13Lysander straightens up.
00:26:14The softness leaves his body fast.
00:26:17Who is at the door, Sienna?
00:26:19I'm not expecting anyone.
00:26:21He checks the camera in the front hall.
00:26:23There are three orcs on the step.
00:26:26They wear iron coats with full tusks and unbroken horns.
00:26:32My uncle's men.
00:26:34Six hours, you said.
00:26:36He was closer than I thought.
00:26:38He moves me behind him.
00:26:41He opens the door himself,
00:26:43the oldest of the three steps in.
00:26:45Six foot eleven, in a silk-lined coat.
00:26:48He sees Lysadar.
00:26:50His eyes go to the broken horn and the dead eye.
00:26:52They go to the snapped tusk.
00:26:54They go to the brand under the shirt.
00:26:56He smiles at him.
00:26:57Forgive the intrusion.
00:27:00I'm Lord Varric of House Drenimum.
00:27:03I've come to collect my nephew.
00:27:07He's married.
00:27:09To you.
00:27:10A human.
00:27:11I admire your nerve.
00:27:13His smile widens.
00:27:14But my nephew is not property you can keep.
00:27:17He belongs to the house until he is twenty-five.
00:27:21Get out of my father's house.
00:27:23Varric turns to Lysander.
00:27:25He says something quiet in the old language.
00:27:30Lysander's scar twitches.
00:27:32What did he say?
00:27:34He asked if I had taught the human pet to sit yet.
00:27:38My father grips the hall doorway hard.
00:27:41Lysander steps fully into the foyer.
00:27:43You paid Orlof and Zun's twelve thousand pieces.
00:27:47They put a knife in my eye when I was eight.
00:27:50Lysander!
00:27:51You paid them to snap my tusk.
00:27:53To break my horn.
00:27:54To brand me Mongrel 72.
00:27:57That is enough!
00:27:58You sold me to twelve cages over fifteen years.
00:28:01You're here today because Grandmother is dead.
00:28:04Her will makes me richer than you.
00:28:06Varric's smile sharpens.
00:28:07Your mother married beneath you.
00:28:09Your father was a stain on our bloodline.
00:28:12We did what was necessary.
00:28:16The three of them step toward me.
00:28:20Varric's hand comes up to strike.
00:28:22Lysander moves on him.
00:28:24The first hit cracks bone.
00:28:26The second is wetter.
00:28:28The third rattles the chandelier above us.
00:28:31My father grabs me and pulls me into the hallway.
00:28:34He clamps his hand over my mouth.
00:28:36Nineteen seconds is all it takes.
00:28:38The foyer doors come back open.
00:28:41Lysander stands in the frame.
00:28:44There's blood on his knuckles and a cut on his cheekbone.
00:28:47Three high-bend orcs lie on the marble.
00:28:49None of them are getting up soon.
00:28:51None of them are dead.
00:28:52My father starts to laugh.
00:28:54Quiet it, then louder.
00:28:55Lysander turns to me.
00:28:56He looks wild.
00:28:57His hand is shaking hard.
00:28:59I can put my back to a wall.
00:29:03I take him to my bathroom.
00:29:05I lock the door behind us.
00:29:06I sit him on the closed lid of the toilet.
00:29:08I turn on the hot water in the sink.
00:29:10He doesn't speak.
00:29:11He stares at the tile between his feet.
00:29:13His hands won't stop shaking.
00:29:15I run a washcloth under the tap.
00:29:17I wring it out.
00:29:18I kneel in front of him on the bath mat.
00:29:20Give me your hands.
00:29:22He gives them to me.
00:29:24I wash them, knuckle by knuckle.
00:29:26The blood isn't his.
00:29:27It comes off easy.
00:29:28Look at me.
00:29:29He doesn't look up.
00:29:31Lysander, look at me.
00:29:33He looks at me.
00:29:34And then he breaks.
00:29:36His shoulders drop.
00:29:38He starts to cry.
00:29:39He puts his forehead against my collarbone and his whole body shakes.
00:29:44I hold the back of his head.
00:29:45I let him fall apart.
00:29:47I was eight.
00:29:49I was eight years old.
00:29:51I tighten my hand in his hair.
00:29:54They told me my mother was on her way.
00:29:56They told me she was coming to take me home.
00:30:01I sat in that room for two hours waiting for her.
00:30:04Then the door opened and it wasn't her.
00:30:07I'm here.
00:30:12My uncle paid them to do it.
00:30:14I was eight years old in a chair.
00:30:16He watched the whole thing.
00:30:18He is making a sound now that isn't quite crying.
00:30:22Tonight I broke his tusk on his own floor.
00:30:24It didn't fix anything.
00:30:25I thought it would fix something.
00:30:27It doesn't work like that.
00:30:31No, it doesn't.
00:30:34Hey.
00:30:35Look at me.
00:30:36He looks at me again.
00:30:38It doesn't fix what he did to you.
00:30:39Nothing does.
00:30:44But it tells him you grew up.
00:30:46He sold an eight-year-old.
00:30:49The eight-year-old came back with a wife.
00:30:56I don't deserve this.
00:30:57You keep saying that.
00:31:04Because it's true.
00:31:06Then we have a problem.
00:31:07I'm not leaving you.
00:31:09I take his face in both my hands.
00:31:11I kiss the dead side first.
00:31:13The scarred one.
00:31:14Where the knife went in.
00:31:16He flinches the way he did with the towel last night.
00:31:21I do it again.
00:31:22Slower this time.
00:31:24The third time he doesn't flint at all.
00:31:26He looks at me steady.
00:31:27I'm going to need you for the rest of my life.
00:31:30I'm telling you now.
00:31:31You can decide before this gets worse.
00:31:33Already decided.
00:31:352 a.m. last night.
00:31:36Get in the bath.
00:31:37He gets in the bath.
00:31:37He doesn't fit at all.
00:31:39His knees come up over the rim.
00:31:41His broken horn taps the tile above him.
00:31:44He laughs at himself.
00:31:45The sound is short and surprised.
00:31:47I haven't been in a bathtub since I was a child.
00:31:50You're in one now.
00:31:51I sit on the edge in my clothes.
00:31:54I dip the washcloth in the water.
00:31:57I start at his shoulder.
00:31:59I work down his arm and across his chest.
00:32:01I work over the long scar.
00:32:03It runs from his hairline to his collar.
00:32:05The brand on his ribs is the last thing I get to.
00:32:08The number 12 is burnt into him in black ink.
00:32:11The brand is older than the knife scar.
00:32:13The skin around it is still raised after 15 years.
00:32:15I put my harm flat on it.
00:32:17Tell me what this one is.
00:32:19Cage number.
00:32:21Twelfth owner.
00:32:22They burn the new number over the old one each time.
00:32:25The first six are under it.
00:32:27You can feel the ridges if you press.
00:32:30I can feel them.
00:32:31I do press.
00:32:33And the others?
00:32:34He starts to tell me about them.
00:32:36He doesn't stop for an hour.
00:32:40There was the owner who fed him once a week.
00:32:43There was the one who used him in the pit.
00:32:45There was the one in Maryland with the daughter.
00:32:48She slipped him bread under the door at night.
00:32:50Her father caught her doing it.
00:32:51He never knew what happened to the daughter after that.
00:32:54I listen to him.
00:32:57I keep the water warm.
00:33:00I don't cry.
00:33:01He doesn't need that from me.
00:33:03When he is done, he sits very still.
00:33:07Sienna.
00:33:08Yes.
00:33:10Nobody has ever asked me what they were.
00:33:14Nobody is ever going to skip that question again.
00:33:17He looks at me.
00:33:18He is steady for the first time all day.
00:33:21I want you to see the rest of them too.
00:33:24I help him stand.
00:33:26He drips water on the bath mat.
00:33:28I dry him with a towel I fetch twice from the closet.
00:33:31I find every scar he tells me to find.
00:33:34Six are on his back.
00:33:36One sits under his jaw.
00:33:37One is on the inside of his thigh.
00:33:39He won't explain that one.
00:33:41I put my mouth on each of them.
00:33:43When I get to the brand,
00:33:45I stay there longer.
00:33:47This one we are going to put my name over.
00:33:51Sienna.
00:33:52Not removing it.
00:33:54Tattooing over it.
00:33:55I want my name on you, not his number.
00:33:57He doesn't say anything for a long time.
00:34:00Alright.
00:34:03Tomorrow.
00:34:04After we deal with the estate.
00:34:06After my father makes a call.
00:34:08Tomorrow night we are going to a tattoo shop.
00:34:10We are covering that brand with my name.
00:34:15Tomorrow.
00:34:16I get up on my toes to reach his ear.
00:34:19And tonight you are going to sleep in a real bed.
00:34:23In this house.
00:34:24In my bed.
00:34:26Sullivan can hear it through the wall and I don't care.
00:34:29His eyes fill again.
00:34:31Different this time.
00:34:34We don't make it to my bed.
00:34:36We get as far as the bedroom door.
00:34:40He stops me in the doorway.
00:34:43He puts both hands flat on the frame.
00:34:45One hand on either side of my head.
00:34:47He looks down at me.
00:34:49I haven't had anyone since I was eight years old.
00:34:51I haven't been allowed to.
00:34:54I know that.
00:34:58I don't know how to do this slow.
00:35:02You did it last night.
00:35:04Last night.
00:35:05I was an animal you brought home from an alley.
00:35:08Tonight I'm in your house.
00:35:11I'm in your father's house.
00:35:16I keep waiting for someone to come tell me to leave.
00:35:19I take his hand off the door frame.
00:35:21I put it on my throat.
00:35:23Over the bite mark.
00:35:25Nobody is coming to tell you to leave.
00:35:26He lifts me.
00:35:28Both hands under my thighs.
00:35:30He walks me to the bed.
00:35:32He lays me down gently.
00:35:35Slow tonight.
00:35:38He undresses me without taking his eye off my face.
00:35:42Each button.
00:35:44And each strap.
00:35:45He folds the dress over the chair.
00:35:48And sets it down carefully.
00:35:51He kneels at the foot of the bed.
00:35:53Open for me.
00:35:54I open my knees for him.
00:35:57He kisses the inside of one.
00:35:58Then the inside of the other.
00:36:00He works his way up slowly.
00:36:02He keeps his eye on my face the whole time.
00:36:04When his mouth gets where it is going.
00:36:06I make a sound.
00:36:07A sound I have never made in this house.
00:36:10I make sure it carries through the wall.
00:36:12He laughs against me.
00:36:13He doesn't stop what he's doing.
00:36:15When I come.
00:36:16He climbs back up me.
00:36:18He pushes in slowly.
00:36:20Inch by inch.
00:36:22He watches my face the whole time.
00:36:24You're mine.
00:36:26Yours.
00:36:28Yours.
00:36:28He moves in long, slow strokes.
00:36:30The bed barely makes a sound.
00:36:32His weight rests on his forearms.
00:36:34His forehead presses against mine.
00:36:36I have you.
00:36:37Nobody is taking you from me.
00:36:39He stops moving.
00:36:41He looks at me.
00:36:42Say that again, Sienna.
00:36:43Nobody is taking you.
00:36:45Not your uncle and not the auction tier.
00:36:47He is with me now.
00:36:49He closes his eyes.
00:36:51He starts to move again.
00:36:53Slower and deeper than before.
00:36:55He puts his mouth back on the bite on my throat.
00:36:58He doesn't bite this time.
00:36:59He just rests his mouth on the mark and holds.
00:37:02When I come the second time, it is quiet between us.
00:37:05My whole body shakes under him and I don't make a sound.
00:37:10I just hold his face and watch him watch me.
00:37:13He follows me a minute later.
00:37:15He whispers something in the old language against my collarbone.
00:37:20What did you say?
00:37:22My mother's full name.
00:37:24I haven't said it to another person in 15 years.
00:37:29I wanted her to hear yours.
00:37:32I wake up to my mother in the doorway.
00:37:35She is in her dressing gown with no makeup on.
00:37:38She has been up all night.
00:37:40Lysener is asleep on his front beside me.
00:37:43One arm is thrown across my waist.
00:37:45The brand on his ribs is showing in the morning light.
00:37:48She sees the brand.
00:37:49She covers her mouth with both hands.
00:37:51I sit up slowly.
00:37:53I don't move his arm.
00:37:56Mom.
00:37:58Sienna.
00:37:59Come in or don't.
00:38:00Don't stand in the doorway.
00:38:02She comes in.
00:38:03She sits on the edge of the bed.
00:38:06She looks at his face.
00:38:08She looks at the bite on my neck.
00:38:10She looks back at his face again.
00:38:12Your father told me everything.
00:38:14The grandmother.
00:38:15The estate.
00:38:16The uncle who paid people to do this to him.
00:38:19And you brought him home this morning.
00:38:21After one night.
00:38:23Yes.
00:38:24She puts her hand on my knee through the blanket.
00:38:26I'm going to say something.
00:38:28You are going to let me say it.
00:38:30Go ahead.
00:38:32For 18 months I have watched the pure blood we bought you.
00:38:35I have watched him ignore you in this house.
00:38:37I told myself it was an adjustment.
00:38:39I told myself it was Cora's fault.
00:38:42I told myself it was the perfume.
00:38:44Mom.
00:38:45Let me finish.
00:38:47I am 60 years old.
00:38:50I don't know what to do with my face.
00:38:52I take her hand in mine.
00:38:55Tell me you're sorry.
00:38:57That's what you do with your face.
00:38:59She doesn't move for a while.
00:39:02I'm sorry.
00:39:03For Sullivan and for Cora.
00:39:05For all of it.
00:39:06For 18 years of looking for you and giving up.
00:39:10I am sorry, Sienna.
00:39:12I don't say anything back.
00:39:14She doesn't expect me to.
00:39:15She stands up from the bed.
00:39:18Your father is in the study.
00:39:20The lawyer is on his way over.
00:39:22The estate has to be moved out of Prabodi today.
00:39:25Otherwise your uncle's brother files a claim by noon.
00:39:31Tell him I'm coming down.
00:39:34She stops at the door.
00:39:38She looks back at me.
00:39:41Sienna.
00:39:42What is it?
00:39:43Whatever this one is.
00:39:45Whatever they call him in their old language.
00:39:47He is the one I would have picked for you.
00:39:51If I had been the kind of mother who got to pick.
00:39:54She closes the door behind her.
00:39:59Lysener's arm tightens on my waist.
00:40:01He has been awake for the last minute.
00:40:04Your mother just apologized to you.
00:40:08She did.
00:40:09In English.
00:40:11I noticed.
00:40:12My mother would have liked her.
00:40:14I kiss his shoulder.
00:40:16The scarred one.
00:40:19Get up.
00:40:20The lawyer arrives in 20 minutes.
00:40:23The lawyer arrives at 9.
00:40:25He sets his briefcase on my father's desk.
00:40:28He is 60-something in a gray suit.
00:40:32He has been delivering complicated news for 30 years.
00:40:35Mr. Quinn.
00:40:36Miss Quinn.
00:40:37Lord Drenum.
00:40:39Lysender doesn't react to the title.
00:40:41He sits in the chair next to mine.
00:40:43His hand stays on the back of my chair.
00:40:46The estate of Lady Alias Drenum was promoted in chambers last week.
00:40:52Her amended will was executed three days before her death.
00:40:56Three witnesses signed it.
00:40:59Read it to us.
00:41:00He reads it out loud.
00:41:02The estate of Lady Alias Drenum passes in full.
00:41:05It goes to the human woman bonded to her grandson.
00:41:09To Lysendor of the North Forest.
00:41:11By name, Sienna Quinn.
00:41:13I sit there for a moment.
00:41:15The lawyer waits patiently.
00:41:20How much exactly?
00:41:22Eight hundred and forty million dollars in assets.
00:41:25Lands in three districts.
00:41:27A coastal harbor.
00:41:29Two textile mills.
00:41:31A working mine.
00:41:33A house you will never need to set foot in.
00:41:35Not if you don't wish to.
00:41:37Why me?
00:41:39She didn't trust her own house to protect her grandson.
00:41:43She made you the shield instead.
00:41:46She never met me.
00:41:48She had three people watching you for nine months.
00:41:51She knew exactly who she was leaving it to.
00:41:55Lysander hasn't moved during any of this.
00:41:57I turn to him.
00:41:59Did you know about this?
00:42:00No, I didn't.
00:42:02Did you suspect?
00:42:03I suspected she had someone watching me.
00:42:06I didn't know it was you.
00:42:08I didn't know it was already done.
00:42:10I look at the lawyer.
00:42:13Can I refuse it?
00:42:15You can.
00:42:16The estate then passes to the next eligible heir.
00:42:18Your husband's uncle.
00:42:20Lord Varric.
00:42:21I look at Lysanium.
00:42:25I'm not refusing it.
00:42:29No.
00:42:31It's not for me.
00:42:32It's for the boy in the chair.
00:42:40Yes.
00:42:42I sign the papers.
00:42:44There are 43 pages of them.
00:42:48The lawyer's pen runs out halfway through.
00:42:51My father gives him a new one.
00:42:54When it is done, the lawyer stands up.
00:42:58He bows slightly to be polite.
00:43:00Lady Drenum.
00:43:02Don't call me that yet.
00:43:03It is the name on the deed now, Mom.
00:43:06He leaves the study.
00:43:09My father pours himself the Berndi he didn't drink yesterday.
00:43:13He drinks it down now.
00:43:16Sienna.
00:43:17Dad.
00:43:18I gave you a pure blood for your birthday.
00:43:21He was the most expensive thing in this house.
00:43:24I remember.
00:43:26He is now the fourth most expensive thing in this house.
00:43:31And that is only counting your husband.
00:43:35The estate is the first.
00:43:37He looks at At-Lysol either.
00:43:41Sotheby's take Sullivan tomorrow.
00:43:44Open auction.
00:43:46No reserve.
00:43:47Dad.
00:43:48Not the auction.
00:43:50There's a retired doctor in Maine.
00:43:53He works with show orcs who couldn't adjust.
00:43:55Sullivan is going to relearn how to be a person.
00:43:58Without a master.
00:44:00My father studies my face.
00:44:02You are kinder than I would be in your place.
00:44:06I'm not kind.
00:44:08I'm just done with all of it.
00:44:12He nods.
00:44:13He picks up the phone to make the call.
00:44:17Six months later, the doctor in Maine writes back.
00:44:21Sullivan is feeding his feed himself.
00:44:23He answers to his own name now.
00:44:26Lysander squeezes my hand under the desk.
00:44:28I squeeze back.
00:44:31Outside the study window,
00:44:33Cora is on the lawn with her suitcase.
00:44:38Cora is in the garden when I find her.
00:44:41Her suitcase is open on the lawn.
00:44:43The housekeeper is folding sweaters into it carefully.
00:44:46Cora is sitting on the stone bench.
00:44:48Her arms are wrapped around her knees.
00:44:51She is 17 years old.
00:44:54She looks 12.
00:44:55I leave on Friday.
00:44:58I know.
00:44:59I packed half of this myself.
00:45:01I saw you did.
00:45:05I sit down next to her on the bench.
00:45:08Sis.
00:45:10What is it?
00:45:12I saw you and him in the hallway last night.
00:45:15And?
00:45:17He put his hand on the back of your head.
00:45:19The way Sully puts his hand on mine when I'm crying.
00:45:24Cora.
00:45:25That isn't what I want to say.
00:45:26What I want to say is this.
00:45:28That was the first time in 18 months.
00:45:30The first time I have seen someone touch you like a person.
00:45:34Mom and dad don't ever touch you.
00:45:37Sully doesn't touch you.
00:45:38I throw things at you.
00:45:39You don't have anybody, sis.
00:45:44I have him now.
00:45:46That's exactly what I'm saying.
00:45:48She turns on the bench to face me.
00:45:50I have been telling myself this story for two years.
00:45:54The story is that you stole my life from me.
00:45:57You came in.
00:45:59You pushed me out of every spot I had.
00:46:02Maybe that's true.
00:46:03A little.
00:46:04But I watched you walk into the foyer yesterday.
00:46:07Your hair was unwashed.
00:46:09There was a bite mark on your throat.
00:46:11A seven-foot orc walked in behind you.
00:46:14And I realized something.
00:46:16What?
00:46:18You weren't pushing me out.
00:46:19You were finally walking in.
00:46:21You have been outside this family the entire time.
00:46:24I just couldn't see it before.
00:46:26I am quiet for a long moment.
00:46:29I'm not asking you to forgive me.
00:46:31I'm asking you to let me write to you.
00:46:33Every Sunday.
00:46:34Handwritten letters.
00:46:36Mailed at the end of every month.
00:46:41Yes.
00:46:42I'll write back to one in three.
00:46:44Not when you're performing.
00:46:45When you stop performing.
00:46:47Deal.
00:46:48She wipes her face with the back of her hand.
00:46:51He is going to be your husband for real, isn't he?
00:46:55He already is.
00:46:57We're doing the rest of the paperwork next week.
00:46:59Can I come to the wedding?
00:47:01Yes.
00:47:03Even from Switzerland?
00:47:05We'll fly you back for the day.
00:47:07You can come back at Christmas every year, too.
00:47:10Lindenburg until 21.
00:47:13Then we see who you've become.
00:47:15She nods at that.
00:47:17She puts her head on my shoulder.
00:47:20She hasn't done that since she was 11.
00:47:23I remember the exact date.
00:47:30Sis.
00:47:32He loves you.
00:47:33I know that.
00:47:35He loves you in a way Sully never loved me.
00:47:37I figured it out this morning.
00:47:39How did you figure it out?
00:47:43Sully loved being mine.
00:47:45I said her loves you.
00:47:47She gets up from the bench.
00:47:49She goes back to her suitcase.
00:47:50I sit there a moment longer.
00:47:53The housekeeper folds another sweater.
00:47:56The sun moves on the lawn.
00:47:59Tonight, Lysander and I have a tattoo to get.
00:48:03That night, Lysander and I drive into the city.
00:48:06We go to a tattoo shop on the Lower East Side.
00:48:10The artist is a woman in her 50s.
00:48:12Half her face is tattooed already.
00:48:15She doesn't blink at his size or at his face.
00:48:18She says only one thing.
00:48:20Show me what we're covering.
00:48:22He lifts his shirt.
00:48:24The brand is right there.
00:48:26The number 12.
00:48:27The raised ridges of the six older numbers are visible underneath.
00:48:32What do you want to put over it?
00:48:33Her name.
00:48:35She looks over at me.
00:48:36She doesn't ask if I am sure about this.
00:48:40What font?
00:48:42Whatever he wants.
00:48:45I want to be able to read it from across a room.
00:48:48She draws something on tracing paper.
00:48:50She holds the paper up to his ribs.
00:48:52The word reads Sienna in tall block letters.
00:48:55Tall enough to swallow the brand whole.
00:48:58Tall enough to swallow the six numbers underneath it.
00:49:01That one.
00:49:03She does the work.
00:49:04It takes four hours.
00:49:07He doesn't make a single sound the whole time.
00:49:10He keeps his eyes on me.
00:49:12I sit on a stool beside the table.
00:49:14I hold his hand.
00:49:16I don't let go once.
00:49:18When she is finished, she wipes him down.
00:49:21She wraps the ribs in plastic.
00:49:24She steps back to look.
00:49:26Lord Draenon, I don't work on Highborn.
00:49:30I have never been asked to.
00:49:32Why me tonight?
00:49:33Because you don't work on Highborn.
00:49:35Because you wouldn't have done this for my uncle.
00:49:38Because this is not a Drenum tattoo.
00:49:39She nods slowly.
00:49:42She understands what he means.
00:49:45He sits up on the table.
00:49:47He looks down at his own side.
00:49:49The word Sienna sits under the plastic.
00:49:52The skin is red around the edges and starting to scab over.
00:49:55The brand is gone.
00:49:56The six numbers under it are gone.
00:49:59Everything is gone except my name on him.
00:50:01He puts his hand flat over it.
00:50:03His eyes fill with tears.
00:50:05You did it.
00:50:07I told you I would.
00:50:11Your name is on me now.
00:50:12The number is gone.
00:50:14They do.
00:50:15He pays the artist three times what she charged him.
00:50:19She doesn't argue with that.
00:50:21In the car, he keeps his hand over the tattoo.
00:50:24The whole way home.
00:50:27Sienna.
00:50:28What is it?
00:50:30My grandmother left you 840 million dollars.
00:50:34I'm aware of that.
00:50:36And you took me to a tattoo shop in a strip mall.
00:50:40I had to keep my promise to you.
00:50:43He laughs quietly at that.
00:50:45Will you marry me, Sienna?
00:50:47The legal kind, with the paper and the witnesses.
00:50:51So when somebody asks me what I am,
00:50:54my answer doesn't start with the word mongrel.
00:50:59Yes.
00:51:01When?
00:51:02Next Saturday.
00:51:04The garden.
00:51:05Cora flies back for the day.
00:51:07My father walks me out.
00:51:09And your mother?
00:51:12My mother is doing my hair.
00:51:14She told me this morning.
00:51:16I didn't even ask her.
00:51:18He kisses my hand.
00:51:20The one I am still holding his with.
00:51:24Saturday is six days away.
00:51:26Six days to plan a wedding.
00:51:29It is Saturday in the garden behind the house.
00:51:32There are forty chairs set out.
00:51:34And white ribbon on every one.
00:51:37The housekeeper has been crying since dawn for reasons he won't explain.
00:51:42My mother does my hair on the back porch.
00:51:45She works in silence for a long time.
00:51:49Your grandmother had this hair.
00:51:51I never told you.
00:51:53I never met her.
00:51:55No, you didn't.
00:51:57She would have liked you.
00:51:59She would have hated him.
00:52:02Mom.
00:52:03That is a compliment.
00:52:05The women in my family always hated the right men.
00:52:09She secures the last pin.
00:52:11She steps back from the mirror.
00:52:14You look like her, Sienna.
00:52:16You haven't said that before.
00:52:19I haven't been able to say it.
00:52:22She sets the brush down.
00:52:25I'm going to sit in the front row.
00:52:27I am going to cry.
00:52:29Don't look at me.
00:52:29Look at him.
00:52:31I was already going to.
00:52:33She kisses the top of my head.
00:52:35She walks down to the garden.
00:52:38Cora comes in wearing a white dress.
00:52:40She is the maid of honor.
00:52:41We didn't announce this.
00:52:43She just showed up in it.
00:52:45He's already there, sis.
00:52:47I can see him through the window.
00:52:50He is in a black coat with a dark red lining.
00:52:54Those are the North Forest colors.
00:52:56His mother's seal is on the collar.
00:52:58The lawyer in Geneva sent it over.
00:53:01He is standing at the end of the garden in the sun.
00:53:04His eyes are closed.
00:53:06Cora hands me the bouquet.
00:53:08Don't trip, sis.
00:53:11I won't trip.
00:53:13My father is in the doorway behind us.
00:53:15He has stopped shaking these last few days.
00:53:18Sweetheart.
00:53:20Daddy.
00:53:21I gave you a pure blood for your 22nd birthday.
00:53:27I remember.
00:53:28I want to give you something today.
00:53:31Something I should have given you back then.
00:53:34Permission to walk out of any room.
00:53:37Any room you don't want to be in.
00:53:40You're a little late on that, dad.
00:53:43I know.
00:53:44Take it anyway.
00:53:46He puts my hand on his arm.
00:53:47He walks me down the aisle.
00:53:50Lysander opens his eyes.
00:53:52He has been waiting since 10 in the morning.
00:53:54He isn't going to miss a single step now.
00:53:58My father puts my hand in his hand.
00:54:01Take care of her, son.
00:54:02The first 18 years, I didn't.
00:54:05Yes, sir.
00:54:06The priest is the chaplain from our parish church.
00:54:09He reads in English.
00:54:12Lysander asked him for this.
00:54:13He says the vows.
00:54:15I say the vows back.
00:54:17The priest closes the book.
00:54:18There is one tradition I have been asked to honor.
00:54:21Lord Drenjan, speak the name your mother gave you.
00:54:25Loud enough for the garden to hear.
00:54:28Lysander doesn't turn to face the chairs.
00:54:30He turns to face me instead.
00:54:33He says it.
00:54:35Three syllables in the old language.
00:54:38The chairs are quiet for a beat.
00:54:40Then 40 people say it back in two languages at once.
00:54:43My parents, Cora, the housekeeper and the lawyer,
00:54:46the tattoo artist in the back row.
00:54:48The priest turns to me.
00:54:49Lady Drennaman, there is no human tradition for this part.
00:54:54Say what you wish to say.
00:54:56I look out at the chairs and speak up.
00:55:00My name is Sienna Drenwall.
00:55:02I bought him in an alley with cash.
00:55:05He's mine now.
00:55:06The garden laughs at that.
00:55:08Lysander does not.
00:55:10His eyes are wet.
00:55:12He leans down to me.
00:55:14He kisses my face first.
00:55:17Then my mouth.
00:55:18The priest closes the book.
00:55:20It was an intimate reception.
00:55:23Forty chairs were placed around round tables.
00:55:25At eight o'clock, the garden was lit up with lanterns.
00:55:30My father stands first.
00:55:31He taps his glass with a fork.
00:55:34I had a speech written.
00:55:36I'm not going to give it tonight.
00:55:37I'm going to say one thing instead.
00:55:40He looks at Lysander.
00:55:43My daughter ate breakfast alone in this house for 18 months.
00:55:46She doesn't anymore.
00:55:48That's because of you.
00:55:50Sit down.
00:55:52Eat the cake.
00:55:55Lysander sits back down.
00:55:57Cora stands up next.
00:55:59She is shaking.
00:56:01She has never given a speech.
00:56:03My sister came home at 23.
00:56:06The day she walked through the door, I threw a butter knife at her head.
00:56:10I missed by an inch.
00:56:11I have spent two years wishing I had not missed.
00:56:15The garden goes very still.
00:56:18I'm leaving for Switzerland on Tuesday.
00:56:21I am going to be a different person when I come back.
00:56:25Not because she sent me away.
00:56:28Because she came and found me crying last week.
00:56:31And she didn't have to.
00:56:33I look up at her.
00:56:34My father has been talking to her about more than I knew.
00:56:39I want her husband to know something too.
00:56:42You take care of her.
00:56:44That's all I'm asking.
00:56:47For as long as you walk.
00:56:49Lysander stands.
00:56:50He bows slightly to her.
00:56:54Yes.
00:56:55She sits down crying.
00:56:57My mother takes her hand under the table.
00:57:00Later, there is dancing.
00:57:03Lysander has never been allowed to dance.
00:57:06The first thing he does is step on my foot.
00:57:08I'm sorry, Sienna.
00:57:10That was your foot.
00:57:12Try again.
00:57:13He tries again.
00:57:15He steps on my foot again.
00:57:19I am terrible at this.
00:57:21You are terrible.
00:57:23Keep going anyway.
00:57:25By the fifth song, he isn't terrible anymore.
00:57:27He has stopped looking down at his feet.
00:57:31My mother dances with my father.
00:57:34They haven't danced together in a decade.
00:57:36He cries on her shoulder, quietly.
00:57:39She pretends not to notice.
00:57:41At eleven, I find Lysander at the edge of the garden.
00:57:44He has two glasses of champagne.
00:57:48For me?
00:57:50For you.
00:57:51I take one.
00:57:52We sit on the stone bench, where Cora and I sat last week.
00:57:57Lady Drennaman.
00:57:58Don't start with that.
00:58:00You'll have to get used to it eventually.
00:58:02Just not tonight.
00:58:04We are quiet together for a moment.
00:58:09I have a question, Sienna.
00:58:11I've been holding it since the bath.
00:58:13Ask me anything.
00:58:14The first night in the alley, the traitor said I was already ruined.
00:58:19Why did you say yes?
00:58:20I told you.
00:58:22Because nobody else would.
00:58:23Is that the whole answer?
00:58:25No, it isn't.
00:58:29Tell me the rest.
00:58:31I thought you were like me.
00:58:33That we could be together.
00:58:35He puts down his glass.
00:58:38Sienna.
00:58:39Since the first time I held you, I have been afraid you would not stay.
00:58:44I am staying.
00:58:46He picks me up off the bench.
00:58:48He carries me through the garden to the back door.
00:58:51The garden is empty by now.
00:58:53The lanterns are still on.
00:58:55Take me upstairs, husband.
00:58:58Yes.
00:59:00We are in our bedroom.
00:59:02The fire is in the hearth.
00:59:04The door is closed behind us.
00:59:07He sets me down on the rug.
00:59:09He kneels down in front of me.
00:59:10He undoes the dress slowly, the same way he did it the first night in this house.
00:59:17He stops.
00:59:18When the bodice falls.
00:59:19I need to tell you something before tonight starts.
00:59:23I sit down on the rug with him.
00:59:26Tell me what it is.
00:59:27I'm going to wake up tomorrow and you'll still be here.
00:59:30And the day after.
00:59:32I didn't believe that until today.
00:59:36What changed today?
00:59:37Forty men in your garden called out my mother's name.
00:59:41You stood before them all.
00:59:44You said you bought me from an alley.
00:59:47You said it loudly.
00:59:49He puts his hand over the tattoo on his ribs.
00:59:52Your name is on me.
00:59:54Everyone in that garden knows it.
00:59:57They do.
00:59:59He leans his forehead against mine.
01:00:03I'm yours.
01:00:04You're mine.
01:00:06I press my forehead back against his.
01:00:09I pull him down to the rug with me.
01:00:12I put my mouth on the tattoo.
01:00:17Lay back for me.
01:00:19He lays back on the rug.
01:00:23I want to look at you tonight.
01:00:26Look at me then.
01:00:27I sit on his hips.
01:00:29I put his hands on my waist.
01:00:31I move slow.
01:00:34He watches me the whole time.
01:00:36Neither of us is in a hurry.
01:00:38We have time now.
01:00:40When I come, he holds me through it.
01:00:46He doesn't look away once.
01:00:48He follows me a minute later.
01:00:50He sits up afterward.
01:00:52He pulls me against his chest.
01:00:54He puts his mouth on the bite on my throat.
01:00:57The scar is healed now.
01:00:58He kisses it instead of biting it.
01:01:02I love you, Sienna Drennan.
01:01:05I love you too, Lysander.
01:01:07He pulls the blanket down over us.
01:01:13The fire is still going in the hearth.
01:01:17He falls asleep on his back with his hand over the tattoo.
01:01:21His other hand stays on my hip.
01:01:23I lie awake for a few minutes,
01:01:25listening to him breathe steady.
01:01:30Eighteen months ago, I ate breakfast alone.
01:01:33Three weeks ago, I bought a man in an alley.
01:01:36Tonight, my husband is asleep on the rug.
01:01:41My name is on his ribs.
01:01:43Best money I ever spent.
01:01:44I close my eyes and sleep.
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