She spent five grand to buy a discarded "mongrel" husband that nobody wanted. But beneath his wounded appearance hides a dangerous secret that could change her fate forever. As love grows between them, enemies emerge, ancient powers awaken, and a shocking destiny begins to unfold.
Watch The Mongrel Husband I Bought for Five Grand Full Episode with English Subtitles and experience an emotional fantasy romance filled with werewolf secrets, alpha redemption, forbidden love, betrayal, and unforgettable twists.
#TheMongrelHusbandIBoughtForFiveGrand #WerewolfRomance #AlphaRomance #FantasyDrama #WolfShifter #ShortDrama #DramaSeries #FullEpisode #ENGSUB #FatedMates #RomanticDrama #ShortFilm #ShortMovie #Drama
Watch The Mongrel Husband I Bought for Five Grand Full Episode with English Subtitles and experience an emotional fantasy romance filled with werewolf secrets, alpha redemption, forbidden love, betrayal, and unforgettable twists.
#TheMongrelHusbandIBoughtForFiveGrand #WerewolfRomance #AlphaRomance #FantasyDrama #WolfShifter #ShortDrama #DramaSeries #FullEpisode #ENGSUB #FatedMates #RomanticDrama #ShortFilm #ShortMovie #Drama
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00:002 a.m. I'm crouched outside a bar.
00:00:05Chain smoking. Makeup wrecked. Heels kicked off. Whiskey down the front of my dress.
00:00:11I look like a woman whose life just blew up in her face.
00:00:14That's because it did. A man drops onto the curbs beside me.
00:00:18Cheap 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. Orc auctions are the biggest industry on the East Coast.
00:00:39The 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.
00:00:46What's wrong with him?
00:00:47Faster if I tell you what's right.
00:00:50Mongol. Halfbreed. One-eyed dead. Tusk snap. Big bastard. Tank of a body. Takes a hit. Keeps coming.
00:00:54Show me.
00:01:01I forget how to breathe.
00:01:037 foot 2. Ash gray skin. Scar tissue running from his hairline down to his collar.
00:01:09The left side of his face is wrecked. A white scar cuts him from temple to jaw.
00:01:14That eye is dead. Cloudy. Half blind.
00:01:17Left tusk snapped in half.
00:01:18The right one filed sharp. His horn broken clean at the tip. Shoulders so wide they nearly scrape both walls
00:01:25of the alley.
00:01:26The traitor kicks the back of his knee. He drops. The cobblestones crack.
00:01:32Look at that face, sweetheart. Do 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.
00:01:45Amber.
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.
00:01:596 foot 10 of factory perfect pureblood orc.
00:02:02He sleeps in my stepsister's wing.
00:02:04The 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.
00:02:13You getting this?
00:02:13Me.
00:02:14Sienna Quinn.
00:02:15Sullivan came from the biggest fortune in New York.
00:02:1823 years old.
00:02:192 million dollars I paid for a husband who thinks I smell bad.
00:02:22I grind my cigarette into the pavement.
00:02:26How much to keep him?
00:02:29You don't keep a mongrel.
00:02:32You rent him for an hour till you...
00:02:33Number.
00:02:3460 grand.
00:02:355.
00:02:37Lady, are you out of...
00:02:395.
00:02:40Cash.
00:02:41Right now.
00:02:42Or 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.
00:02:50Deal.
00:02:51I peel off the bills.
00:02:54The chain drops into my palm.
00:02:57Cold.
00:02:59Heavier 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.
00:03:21I look up at his face.
00:03:24Because 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.
00:03:33I tug the chain, gentle, just once, because 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.
00:03:50Head 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?
00:04:01He stares at the headpred for two whole blocks.
00:04:04Lysiander.
00:04:06My mother named me Lysiander.
00:04:08The auction tag calls me Mongrel 72.
00:04:1271 before him.
00:04:13All burned.
00:04:15I'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.
00:04:22That's fine.
00:04:23He will.
00:04:25The plaza.
00:04:26Penthouse.
00:04:27I slip the bellman 300 bucks to wipe the security footage.
00:04:31He doesn't ask why.
00:04:33That'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.
00:04:51The frame groans under him.
00:04:53He puts his hands flat on his knees.
00:04:55Palms down.
00:04:56Fingers spread.
00:04:57The pose you train an animal to hold.
00:05:00Somebody taught him that.
00:05:02I'll deal with that later.
00:05:04I come back from the bathroom with a wet towel.
00:05:07The second I lift it toward his face,
00:05:09His head snaps back hard.
00:05:11Don't!
00:05:12It's just water.
00:05:14That side of my face is dead, Sienna.
00:05:17My 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.
00:05:26Eighteen months in a marriage with no contact.
00:05:29Two hours in a hotel room with a stranger who flinches when I try.
00:05:33God, we're a pair.
00:05:36Tell me who took the eye.
00:05:38The owner's son, he 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.
00:05:53The inside of his wrist is covered in burn scars.
00:05:56Old slave caps over older slave caps.
00:05:58Layers of them.
00:06:00I press my mouth to the inside of his wrist.
00:06:03He stops breathing.
00:06:05Don't be soft with me, Sienna.
00:06:08I'll break.
00:06:10Then break.
00:06:14He drops his forehead into my shoulder.
00:06:16He shakes against me.
00:06:18I put my hand on the back of his head.
00:06:21His hair is rough.
00:06:23Not like Sullivan's silk and conditioner mane.
00:06:26But somehow it makes me feel safer than Sullivan ever did.
00:06:32My phone buzzes on the nightstand.
00:06:35Sully is losing it.
00:06:36He smells another orc on you.
00:06:38He's pacing the foyer.
00:06:40Tusks won't retract.
00:06:42Where are you?
00:06:44I read it twice.
00:06:45Then I smile.
00:06:47First 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.
00:06:58Then they gave up.
00:06:59And adopted a baby girl from the system.
00:07:01They named her Cora.
00:07:03She got 18 years of birthday parties.
00:07:05Ballet lessons.
00:07:06Piano recitals.
00:07:07Family vacations.
00:07:09I got 18 years of foster homes.
00:07:11A juvie cell at 11.
00:07:12A girl gang in Bushwick at 14.
00:07:14And a DNA test at 23 that matched me to the Quinns.
00:07:17When I walked through their door at 23.
00:07:20My little sister was 17.
00:07:22She'd been the only daughter her entire life.
00:07:24She screamed.
00:07:26She broke a vase.
00:07:27She threw a butter knife at my head and missed by an inch.
00:07:29Get out of my house, you trash!
00:07:34My mother held her and stroked her hair.
00:07:36My father stepped between us.
00:07:38Your sister's been spoiled.
00:07:39Try to be patient, sweetheart.
00:07:41That was the day I learned the rules of this family.
00:07:43I keep my mouth shut about Bushwick.
00:07:45I keep my mouth shut about the pickpocking.
00:07:47I smile pretty at brunch.
00:07:51I cry on cue when the inheritance lawyer drops by.
00:07:54The allowance keeps showing up.
00:07:56Every birthday, my parents buy me something extravagant.
00:07:59Paying down the guilt of 18 years they spent not looking hard enough.
00:08:02On my 22nd, they bought me Sullivan.
00:08:04Two million dollar pureblood orc.
00:08:06Show quality bloodline.
00:08:08Brushed coat.
00:08:08Polished tusks.
00:08:09Your sister's so quiet, sweetheart.
00:08:12A companion orc would help her come out of her shell.
00:08:15Cora screamed for three days.
00:08:17Then, she ran away with him for ten.
00:08:19She brought him back skin and bones.
00:08:21My mother slapped her across the face for the first time in her life.
00:08:24And from that day forward, Sullivan only responded to one set of footsteps in the hallway.
00:08:29Hers.
00:08:30He'd live ten days as her stray.
00:08:32He decided she was his real owner.
00:08:34I was just the woman whose name was on the paperwork.
00:08:37Eighteen 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.
00:08:46Tell him to get used to it.
00:08:48I press send.
00:08:49I put both my hands on At Lysenum's face.
00:08:52I make him look at me.
00:08:53You're staying with me.
00:08:56You don't know what you just bought.
00:08:59Then tell me in the morning.
00:09:02He pulls me against his chest.
00:09:04His arm is bigger around than my waist.
00:09:08His heartbeat is slow and heavy under my ear.
00:09:12He's asleep in three minutes.
00:09:13I lie in the dark, listening to him breathe.
00:09:16In eighteen months, my pure-blood husband has never once fallen asleep in the same room as me.
00:09:20The mongrel I bought for five grand has been mined for two hours and he's already unconscious on my chest.
00:09:25Best money I've ever spent.
00:09:28I wake up because there's a hand around my throat.
00:09:31His whole palm covers my neck.
00:09:33His thumb sits on my pulse.
00:09:35He isn't squeezing.
00:09:37He's staring at the door.
00:09:38This isn't a threat.
00:09:40He's checking the room.
00:09:41I keep my voice low.
00:09:46Talk to me.
00:09:48What's at the door?
00:09:49Somebody's in the hallway.
00:09:51Get behind me.
00:09:52He's off the bed in one movement.
00:09:55Three hundred pounds of orc and not a sound on the carpet.
00:09:58He puts his eye to the peephole.
00:10:01His shoulders drop.
00:10:03Room service.
00:10:04He opens the door.
00:10:06The bellboy on the other side sees seven feet of scarred mongrel filling the frame and drops the tray.
00:10:12Lysander catches it before it hits the carpet.
00:10:15Without looking down, he closes the door.
00:10:18He stands with his back to me.
00:10:21Send me back to the trader at sunrise.
00:10:24I sit up in bed.
00:10:26What?
00:10:26He keeps the five thousand.
00:10:29He puts me down anyway.
00:10:31You walk away clean.
00:10:34Lycian!
00:10:36Your pure blood forgives you.
00:10:38Your family forgives you.
00:10:39The story is, you got drunk.
00:10:41You did something stupid.
00:10:42You came home.
00:10:45End of story.
00:10:47I get out of bed.
00:10:49I cross the carpet barefoot.
00:10:52I stand on my toes to put my palm flat against his sternum.
00:10:56His heart is jackrabbiting under my hand.
00:11:00He's terrified.
00:11:02Afraid last night was a lie.
00:11:03Did you sleep tonight?
00:11:07Yes.
00:11:09Three hours.
00:11:10How long since you slept three hours in a row before that?
00:11:15His mouth opens.
00:11:17He doesn't have an answer.
00:11:21I take a breath.
00:11:24I've been married for 18 months to the most beautiful orc in this city.
00:11:28He looks at me.
00:11:30He won't enter my bedroom.
00:11:32He won't touch my hand at dinner.
00:11:35He sleeps in a different wing because my perfume gives him a headache.
00:11:39He brushes my stepster's hair every morning and pretends I'm not at the table.
00:11:43I curl my fingers in the fabric of his shirt.
00:11:48I've been invisible in my own house for 18 months.
00:11:52Sienna.
00:11:53Tonight you saw me first.
00:11:56I look up.
00:11:57You fell asleep on my chest in three minutes.
00:12:00Do you understand what that did to me?
00:12:03I'm not sending you back.
00:12:05He stares down at me.
00:12:07His eyes are wet.
00:12:08You shouldn't love a thing like me.
00:12:11Then we have a problem.
00:12:13Because I think I already do.
00:12:16I take his hand.
00:12:17I lead him back to the bed.
00:12:19Lay down.
00:12:20You haven't slept in three days.
00:12:23He lays down.
00:12:24I curl on his chest.
00:12:28My ear is right over his heart.
00:12:32Why did you really put your hand on my throat earlier?
00:12:35Habit.
00:12:36Mongrels reach for the threat first.
00:12:40Always.
00:12:43You weren't threatening me.
00:12:45You were guarding me.
00:12:47He almost laughs.
00:12:49He tips my chin up with one knuckle.
00:12:52His eye catches the light.
00:12:54Sullivan never touched you, did he?
00:12:59He never sat on the same couch as me.
00:13:02He leans down.
00:13:04Then I'm going to be the first thing on your skin.
00:13:07He kisses me.
00:13:08Hard.
00:13:09The broken tusk drags my lower lip open.
00:13:13He licks the cut.
00:13:14I moan into his mouth.
00:13:16He grabs both my wrists in one hand and pins them above my head.
00:13:20Other hand grips my jaw.
00:13:22Open.
00:13:22I open.
00:13:23His tongue is in my mouth.
00:13:25His knee shoves my thighs apart.
00:13:28He drops his weight on me.
00:13:30The bed dips.
00:13:31The frame groans.
00:13:33He's hard.
00:13:34I feel him against my hip.
00:13:36Through the fabric.
00:13:37Heavy.
00:13:38Thick.
00:13:39I whine.
00:13:39Look at you.
00:13:40Tiny thing.
00:13:42Already shaking for me.
00:13:44He shoves my night ground up to my waist.
00:13:46One hand.
00:13:47The other still pinning my wrists.
00:13:49His palm slides down between my thighs.
00:13:51Already wet.
00:13:53Licenor.
00:13:54Say please.
00:13:57Say it, Sienna.
00:14:00Please.
00:14:05His fingers work into me.
00:14:07Two at once.
00:14:09Thick.
00:14:10Rough.
00:14:11He's watching my face.
00:14:13That's it.
00:14:14There she is.
00:14:15He keeps going till I'm shaking under him.
00:14:18Then, he stops.
00:14:21No.
00:14:22Hush.
00:14:23I want you on my tongue first.
00:14:29He drops down the bed.
00:14:31Shoulders shoove my thighs wider.
00:14:33He hooks both my knees over his shoulders.
00:14:35His mouth goes to me.
00:14:37The intact tusk drags along my inner thigh.
00:14:39The sharp one.
00:14:41Just enough pressure to mark.
00:14:43I cry out.
00:14:44He eats me till my hands tear the sheets.
00:14:46Till my hips lift off the bed for him.
00:14:48He holds me down with one forearm across my stomach.
00:14:51When I come, he is watching me the whole time.
00:14:53He climbs back up me.
00:14:54His mouth is wet.
00:14:56He kisses me with it.
00:14:57Let's me taste myself.
00:14:58Now, look at me when I take you.
00:15:00He pushes in.
00:15:01Slow.
00:15:02So slow.
00:15:04I feel every inch.
00:15:06I'm small under him.
00:15:08He's huge.
00:15:09He stretches me till my eyes go wet.
00:15:12He stops halfway.
00:15:14Breathe.
00:15:44He pushes the rest of the way in.
00:15:46My whole spine snaps tight.
00:15:48My hands fist in the sheets.
00:15:50I cry out into his hair.
00:15:52He holds me through it.
00:15:57He licks the blood off his lip.
00:15:59Then he licks the bite.
00:16:02Mine.
00:16:03Say it back.
00:16:05Yours.
00:16:05Again.
00:16:07Yours, Leicester.
00:16:08He kisses me hard.
00:16:09I taste my own blood in his mouth.
00:16:12I taste my own blood in his mouth and I don't care.
00:16:13It's done.
00:16:14You can't undo it.
00:16:16You're mine forever.
00:16:17Nobody is taking you from me.
00:16:19I smile.
00:16:20Good.
00:16:21I wake up to sunlight on his chest.
00:16:24He has been awake for a while.
00:16:26He is staring at the ceiling.
00:16:28His hand sits on my hip.
00:16:30He is afraid to move it.
00:16:33How long have you been up?
00:16:36Two hours.
00:16:38Why didn't you wake me?
00:16:40You were sleeping on me.
00:16:42I wasn't going to end that.
00:16:44I prop myself up on his sternum.
00:16:46The bite on my neck pulses with every heartbeat.
00:16:49Let me see.
00:16:50He sees me wince and sits up.
00:16:54He turns my head gently.
00:16:56His thumb traces around the mark.
00:16:58Never on it.
00:16:59It's scarred clean.
00:17:01It will show for the rest of your life.
00:17:04That's what I wanted.
00:17:05He studies me for a moment.
00:17:08You keep saying things like that.
00:17:10The words don't seem to cost you anything.
00:17:12They don't.
00:17:14They will.
00:17:15Your father will see the mark.
00:17:17Everyone you grew up around will see what bit you.
00:17:21I climb into his lap.
00:17:23I put his hand flat on my throat, over the bite.
00:17:28Then they see it.
00:17:31He shakes his head once.
00:17:32Sienna.
00:17:34Take it off.
00:17:34I'll buy you a scarf downstairs.
00:17:36Wear it until the bruise fades.
00:17:38Walk back into that house clean.
00:17:41Tell them I was a bad dream.
00:17:43You want me to hide you.
00:17:44I pull back to look at him.
00:17:46I want you to survive me.
00:17:48I take his other hand.
00:17:49I put it on the bite to press both his palms on my throat.
00:17:53What?
00:17:54Press, Lysaner.
00:17:56Hard enough to leave your prints next to your teeth.
00:17:58I can't.
00:17:59He doesn't press.
00:18:01Then stop telling me to take you off.
00:18:03His hands shake.
00:18:05He closes his eyes.
00:18:07He drops his forehead onto my collarbone.
00:18:09I feel him breathe out for the first time since he woke up.
00:18:14I order room service.
00:18:16Two of everything.
00:18:20Eat.
00:18:21Start with the eggs.
00:18:23He stares at the cart and doesn't move.
00:18:26He picks up a fork.
00:18:27He puts it back down.
00:18:29He picks up a piece of bacon with his fingers.
00:18:32He looks up, waiting for me to correct him.
00:18:34I pick up my own piece with my fingers too.
00:18:36He almost smiles.
00:18:39My phone lights up on the carpet.
00:18:43Sully shifted.
00:18:45Tusks won't retract.
00:18:47Dad locked him in the wine cellar.
00:18:48Mom is crying.
00:18:49Where are you?
00:18:56Lysaner reads it over my shoulder.
00:18:58His hand doesn't leave my throat.
00:19:02Get dressed.
00:19:03We're going home.
00:19:07The estate gates are open.
00:19:09The Gar is at his post.
00:19:11He doesn't look at us.
00:19:13Stay outside, Marco.
00:19:14Whatever you hear.
00:19:16Stay outside.
00:19:17He looks relieved and nods.
00:19:20I walk up the gravel drive with Lysaner a step behind me.
00:19:23He doesn't speak.
00:19:24He is scanning every window.
00:19:26He is already counting exits.
00:19:28The foyer is wrecked.
00:19:30There's glass on the marble and a console table on its side.
00:19:35My mother is on the stairs with mascara down her face.
00:19:39Sullivan has my father against the wall.
00:19:42Six foot ten of him, with tusks fully out.
00:19:45His pupils are black to the edge.
00:19:47My father's feet are six inches off the marble.
00:19:49Cora is at the top of the stairs.
00:19:51She has her phone up.
00:19:53She is filming the whole thing.
00:19:55I walk into the middle of the foray.
00:19:57Sully.
00:19:59Put him down.
00:20:01Sullivan turns slowly.
00:20:02He doesn't recognize me for a beat.
00:20:05Then he does.
00:20:06And his nostrils flare.
00:20:08You smell like him, Sienna.
00:20:11Let my father down.
00:20:12I can fix this.
00:20:13I can wash it off.
00:20:15I can mark over it.
00:20:16Sullivan.
00:20:17Put.
00:20:18Him.
00:20:19Down.
00:20:19He drops my father.
00:20:21My father slides down the wall to the marble.
00:20:23Coughing.
00:20:24But alive.
00:20:26Sullivan crosses the foyer toward me.
00:20:28He stops three feet away.
00:20:30He cannot take the next step.
00:20:31Pure Blood Instant won't let him cross the air between us.
00:20:34He has smelled the bond.
00:20:35He knows what it is.
00:20:36Lysaler walks through the doorway behind him.
00:20:39Sullivan's whole body locks up.
00:20:41Lysander doesn't lift a hand.
00:20:42He walks to the middle of the foyer.
00:20:44He says four words in a language I don't know.
00:20:48LUNAR.
00:20:48Then Slilin drops to both knees.
00:20:52His tusks retract.
00:20:54The black in his eyes pulls back to gold.
00:20:57The foyer goes dead silent.
00:20:59My mother gasps from the stairs.
00:21:01Sully.
00:21:03What did you say?
00:21:04Lysander answers in flat English.
00:21:07I told him my mother's name.
00:21:10My father lifts his head from the marble.
00:21:14Who is your mother, son?
00:21:15Lysander looks at me first.
00:21:17Then at my father.
00:21:19Her name was Mayerwin of the North Forest.
00:21:22My father stops breathing for a beat.
00:21:24My father pours brandy in his study.
00:21:27His hands shake.
00:21:28He doesn't drink any of it.
00:21:30Lysander stands by the door.
00:21:31He won't sit in this house yet.
00:21:33Marwin of the North Forest married a human.
00:21:36That makes you highborn.
00:21:38And that makes Varric of House Drangon your uncle.
00:21:42Yes.
00:21:43My father sets the brandy down very carefully.
00:21:46Sienna.
00:21:48Do you understand what you walked into an alley and bought?
00:21:51A husband.
00:21:53A highborn heir.
00:21:55There are seven of them on this coast.
00:21:57That sounds like my problem to handle.
00:21:59That is everyone's problem now.
00:22:02Including mine.
00:22:04He looks at Lysander.
00:22:05Why were you in that alley?
00:22:11My uncle put me there 15 years ago.
00:22:13He paid Orlof and sons 12,000 pieces.
00:22:17They took my eye and snapped my task.
00:22:20They broke my horn.
00:22:21He didn't want anyone to buy me.
00:22:24No one was supposed to see whose blood I had.
00:22:27If I died young, my mother's lands passed to him.
00:22:31And you didn't die.
00:22:33He didn't die.
00:22:34He went through 12 cages.
00:22:35He walked out of an alley last night.
00:22:37He had my chain in his hand.
00:22:40My father is silent at his desk.
00:22:42And he bit you?
00:22:44After one night?
00:22:45Yes.
00:22:49Your grandmother died last month, son.
00:22:52Mero is mother.
00:22:53The estate is in probate.
00:22:54I don't care about the estate.
00:22:57You should care.
00:22:58The day Varek learns Lysadar is alive.
00:23:01He is coming through that gate.
00:23:03Lysander speaks from the doorway.
00:23:04Quiet.
00:23:05He already knows.
00:23:06He felt the bond pulse at 2am.
00:23:08My father closes his eyes.
00:23:10Then he is already on a plane.
00:23:12How long do we have?
00:23:13Six hours.
00:23:14Maybe less.
00:23:16I leave my father in the study.
00:23:18I find Korra in my bedroom.
00:23:20She is on my bed.
00:23:21She holds a phone in one hand.
00:23:23She holds a paring knife in the other.
00:23:26The blade is pointed at her own throat.
00:23:28Hi, sis.
00:23:29We need to talk.
00:23:33I sit down across from her.
00:23:37Put it down, Korra.
00:23:39You took Sully.
00:23:42He was never yours.
00:23:44Mom and Dad bought him for you and he chose me anyway.
00:23:47You imprinted a 12-year-old animal who was scared and confused.
00:23:51That's grooming.
00:23:52That's not love.
00:23:54Send your monster husband away.
00:23:56Send him back tonight.
00:23:58Or I'll do it on your bed.
00:24:00I lean closer.
00:24:02You won't.
00:24:03Watch me.
00:24:05A girl who actually wanted to die wouldn't come here.
00:24:08Not to her sister's bedroom.
00:24:10She would do it in her own room.
00:24:12You came here because you need an audience.
00:24:14She blinks at me.
00:24:15I'm the audience.
00:24:17Drop the knife.
00:24:18Her hand shakes.
00:24:21I've watched you cry on cue for 18 months.
00:24:24I've watched you switch the tears off the second the camera leaves.
00:24:29Sis.
00:24:32This morning you filmed Dad choking against a wall.
00:24:35You didn't drop the phone to help him.
00:24:37You narrated.
00:24:38Her face cracks open.
00:24:40A girl who films her dad choking.
00:24:43She doesn't slit her throat over a husband.
00:24:46Drop it.
00:24:47She drops the knife.
00:24:49Then she starts crying.
00:24:51Real crying.
00:24:53Not the kind I'm used to from her.
00:24:55I hate that you came back.
00:24:56I had everything.
00:24:58I had Dad and Mom and Sully.
00:25:00And this house.
00:25:00Then they found you and I became the second one.
00:25:03You had a stolen life.
00:25:05It was always going to end the day they found me.
00:25:08Sis, please.
00:25:09Switzerland.
00:25:10Friday.
00:25:12Lindenburg Academy.
00:25:13You don't come back until you're 21.
00:25:17She nods at me.
00:25:18She doesn't bargain.
00:25:19I pick the knife up off the bed's food.
00:25:22I walk out into the hall.
00:25:26Lysander is in the hallway.
00:25:28He has heard every word through the door.
00:25:31You didn't have to be that hard with her.
00:25:33I was 17 once.
00:25:35Nobody was soft with me back then.
00:25:38She isn't broken.
00:25:39She is spoiled.
00:25:40There's a difference.
00:25:41He opens his arms.
00:25:43I walk into him.
00:25:45I don't cry.
00:25:48You smell different right now.
00:25:50Just for one minute.
00:25:52Let me hold you.
00:25:53He holds me in the hallway.
00:25:56Behind him, down the corridor.
00:25:57My mother is standing in a doorway.
00:25:59She is watching us closely.
00:26:00She doesn't speak.
00:26:01She watches him put his hand on the back of my head.
00:26:05Then she goes back into her room and closes the door.
00:26:10The doorbell rings at 3 p.m.
00:26:15Lysanthor straightens up.
00:26:17The softness leaves his body fast.
00:26:19Who is at the door, Sienna?
00:26:21I'm not expecting anyone.
00:26:23He checks the camera in the front hall.
00:26:25There are three orcs on the step.
00:26:27They wear iron coats with full tusks and unbroken horns.
00:26:34My uncle's men.
00:26:36Six hours, you said.
00:26:38He was closer than I thought.
00:26:40He moves me behind him.
00:26:43He opens the door himself.
00:26:45The oldest of the three steps in.
00:26:47Six foot eleven, in a silk-lined coat.
00:26:50He sees Lysadar.
00:26:52His eyes go to the broken horn and the dead eye.
00:26:54They go to the snap tusk.
00:26:56They go to the brand under the shirt.
00:26:58He smiles at him.
00:27:00Forgive the intrusion.
00:27:02I'm Lord Varric of House Drenimum.
00:27:05I've come to collect my nephew.
00:27:10He's married.
00:27:11To you.
00:27:12A human.
00:27:14I admire your nerve.
00:27:15His smile widens.
00:27:16But my nephew is not property you can keep.
00:27:19He belongs to the house until he is 25.
00:27:23Get out of my father's house.
00:27:25Varric turns to Lysander.
00:27:27He says something quiet in the old language.
00:27:32Lysander's scar twitches.
00:27:34What did he say?
00:27:37He asked if I had taught the human pet to sit yet.
00:27:40My father grips the hall doorway hard.
00:27:43Lysander steps fully into the foyer.
00:27:46You paid Orlof and Zun's 12,000 pieces.
00:27:49They put a knife in my eye when I was eight.
00:27:52Lysander!
00:27:53You paid them to snap my tusk.
00:27:55To break my horn.
00:27:57To brand me Mongrel 72.
00:27:59That is enough!
00:28:00You sold me to 12 cages over 15 years.
00:28:03You're here today because Grandmother is dead.
00:28:06Her will makes me richer than you.
00:28:08Varric's smile sharpens.
00:28:09Your mother married beneath you.
00:28:11Your father was a stain on our bloodline.
00:28:14We did what was necessary.
00:28:18The three of them step toward me.
00:28:22Varric's hand comes up to strike.
00:28:24Lysander moves on him.
00:28:26The first hit cracks bone.
00:28:28The second is wetter.
00:28:30The third rattles the chandelier above us.
00:28:33My father grabs me and pulls me into the hallway.
00:28:36He clamps his hand over my mouth.
00:28:38Nineteen seconds is all it takes.
00:28:41The foyer doors come back open.
00:28:43Lysander stands in pain.
00:28:46There's blood on his knuckles and a cut on his cheekbone.
00:28:49Three high-bend orcs lie on the marble.
00:28:52None of them are getting up soon.
00:28:53None of them are dead.
00:28:54My father starts to laugh.
00:28:56Quiet it then louder.
00:28:57Lysander turns to me.
00:28:58He looks wild.
00:28:59His hand is shaking hard.
00:29:05I take him to my bathroom.
00:29:07I lock the door behind us.
00:29:08I sit him on the closed lid of the toilet.
00:29:10I turn on the hot water in the sink.
00:29:12He doesn't speak.
00:29:13He stares at the tile between his feet.
00:29:16His hands won't stop shaking.
00:29:17I run a washcloth under the tap.
00:29:19I wring it out.
00:29:20I kneel in front of him on the bath mat.
00:29:22Give me your hands.
00:29:24He gives them to me.
00:29:26I wash them, knuckle by knuckle.
00:29:28The blood isn't his.
00:29:30It comes off easy.
00:29:31Look at me.
00:29:32He doesn't look up.
00:29:33Lysander, look at me.
00:29:35He looks at me, and then he breaks.
00:29:38His shoulders drop.
00:29:40He starts to cry.
00:29:42He puts his forehead against my collarbone,
00:29:44and his whole body shakes.
00:29:46I hold the back of his head.
00:29:48I let him fall apart.
00:29:49I was eight.
00:29:51I was eight years old.
00:29:53I tighten my hand in his hair.
00:29:56They told me my mother was on her way.
00:29:58They told me she was coming to take me home.
00:30:03I sat in that room for two hours waiting for her.
00:30:07Then the door opened, and it wasn't her.
00:30:09I'm here.
00:30:14My uncle paid them to do it.
00:30:16I was eight years old in a chair.
00:30:18He watched the whole thing.
00:30:21He is making a sound now that isn't quite crying.
00:30:24Tonight I broke his tusk on his own floor.
00:30:26It didn't fix anything.
00:30:28I thought it would fix something.
00:30:30It doesn't work like that.
00:30:33No, it doesn't.
00:30:36Hey.
00:30:37Look at me.
00:30:38He looks at me again.
00:30:40It doesn't fix what he did to you.
00:30:42Nothing does.
00:30:47But it tells him you grew up.
00:30:49He sold an eight-year-old.
00:30:51The eight-year-old came back with a wife.
00:30:58I don't deserve this.
00:31:00You keep saying that.
00:31:06Because it's true.
00:31:08Then we have a problem.
00:31:09I'm not leaving you.
00:31:11I take his face in both my hands.
00:31:14I kiss the dead side first.
00:31:15The scarred one.
00:31:17Where the knife went in.
00:31:18He flinches the way he did with the towel last night.
00:31:23I do it again.
00:31:24Slower this time.
00:31:26The third time he doesn't flint at all.
00:31:28He looks at me steady.
00:31:30I'm going to need you for the rest of my life.
00:31:32I'm telling you now.
00:31:33You can decide before this gets worse.
00:31:36Already decided.
00:31:372 a.m. last night.
00:31:38Get in the bath.
00:31:39He gets in the bath.
00:31:40He doesn't fit at all.
00:31:41His knees come up over the rim.
00:31:43His broken horn taps the tile above him.
00:31:46He laughs at himself.
00:31:48The sound is short and surprised.
00:31:50I haven't been in a bathtub since I was a child.
00:31:53You're in one now.
00:31:54I sit on the edge in my clothes.
00:31:56I dip the washcloth in the water.
00:32:00I start at his shoulder.
00:32:01I work down his arm and across his chest.
00:32:04I work over the long scar.
00:32:05It runs from his hairline to his collar.
00:32:07The brand on his ribs is the last thing I get to.
00:32:10The number 12 is burnt into him in black ink.
00:32:13The brand is older than the knife scar.
00:32:15The skin around it is still raised after 15 years.
00:32:18I put my hom flat on it.
00:32:19Tell me what this one is.
00:32:22Cage number.
00:32:23Twelfth owner.
00:32:25They burn the new number over the old one each time.
00:32:28The first six are under it.
00:32:30You can feel the ridges if you press.
00:32:32I can feel them.
00:32:34I do press.
00:32:36And the others?
00:32:37He starts to tell me about them.
00:32:39He doesn't stop for an hour.
00:32:42There was the owner who fed him once a week.
00:32:45There was the one who used him in the pit.
00:32:48There was the one in Maryland with the daughter.
00:32:50She slipped him bread under the door at night.
00:32:52Her father caught her doing it.
00:32:53He never knew what happened to the daughter after that.
00:32:56I listen to him.
00:32:59I keep the water warm.
00:33:02I don't cry.
00:33:04He doesn't need that from me.
00:33:05When he is done,
00:33:07he sits very still.
00:33:10Sienna.
00:33:11Yes?
00:33:13Nobody has ever asked me what they were.
00:33:17Nobody is ever going to skip that question again.
00:33:19He looks at me.
00:33:20He is steady for the first time all day.
00:33:24I want you to see the rest of them too.
00:33:27I help him stand.
00:33:28He drips water on the bath mat.
00:33:31I dry him with a towel I fetch twice from the closet.
00:33:34I find every scar he tells me to find.
00:33:37Six are on his back.
00:33:38One sits under his jaw.
00:33:40One is on the inside of his thigh.
00:33:42He won't explain that one.
00:33:44I put my mouth on each of them.
00:33:46When I get to the brand,
00:33:47I stay there longer.
00:33:49This one we are going to put my name over.
00:33:54Sienna.
00:33:55Not removing it.
00:33:57Tattooing over it.
00:33:58I want my name on you, not his number.
00:34:00He doesn't say anything for a long time.
00:34:03All right.
00:34:05Tomorrow.
00:34:06After we deal with the estate.
00:34:09After my father makes a call.
00:34:11Tomorrow night we are going to a tattoo shop.
00:34:13We are covering that brand with my name.
00:34:18Tomorrow.
00:34:19I get up on my toes to reach his ear.
00:34:22And tonight you are going to sleep in a real bed.
00:34:25In this house.
00:34:27In my bed.
00:34:29Sullivan can hear it through the wall and I don't care.
00:34:32His eyes fill again.
00:34:34Different this time.
00:34:37We don't make it to my bed.
00:34:39We get as far as the bedroom door.
00:34:43He stops me in the doorway.
00:34:45He puts both hands flat on the frame.
00:34:48One hand on either side of my head.
00:34:50He looks down at me.
00:34:52I haven't had anyone since I was eight years old.
00:34:54I haven't been allowed to.
00:34:57I know that.
00:35:00I don't know how to do this slow.
00:35:04You did it last night.
00:35:06Last night.
00:35:08I was an animal you brought home from an alley.
00:35:11Tonight I'm in your house.
00:35:13I'm in your father's house.
00:35:18I keep waiting for someone to come tell me to leave.
00:35:21I take his hand off the door frame.
00:35:24I put it on my throat.
00:35:25Over the bite mark.
00:35:27Nobody is coming to tell you to leave.
00:35:29He lifts me.
00:35:30Both hands under my thighs.
00:35:33He walks me to the bed.
00:35:35He lays me down gently.
00:35:38Slow tonight.
00:35:41He undresses me without taking his eye off my face.
00:35:45Each button.
00:35:46And each strap.
00:35:48He folds the dress over the chair.
00:35:51And sets it down carefully.
00:35:53He kneels at the foot of the bed.
00:35:56Open for me.
00:35:57I open my knees for him.
00:35:59He kisses the inside of one.
00:36:01Then the inside of the other.
00:36:03He works his way up slowly.
00:36:04He keeps his eye on my face the whole time.
00:36:07When his mouth gets where it is going.
00:36:09I make a sound.
00:36:10A sound I have never made in this house.
00:36:12I make sure it carries through the wall.
00:36:15He laughs against me.
00:36:16He doesn't stop what he's doing.
00:36:18When I come.
00:36:19He climbs back up me.
00:36:20He pushes in slowly.
00:36:23Inch by inch.
00:36:25He watches my face the whole time.
00:36:27You're mine.
00:36:29Yours.
00:36:30He moves in long, slow strokes.
00:36:33The bed barely makes a sound.
00:36:35His weight rests on his forearms.
00:36:37His forehead presses against mine.
00:36:39I have you.
00:36:40Nobody is taking you from me.
00:36:42He stops moving.
00:36:43He looks at me.
00:36:44Say that again, Sienna.
00:36:46Nobody is taking you.
00:36:48Not your uncle and not the auction tier.
00:36:50He is with me now.
00:36:52He closes his eyes.
00:36:54He starts to move again.
00:36:56Slower and deeper than before.
00:36:58He puts his mouth back on the bite on my throat.
00:37:01He doesn't bite this time.
00:37:02He just rests his mouth on the mark and holds.
00:37:05When I come the second time, it is quiet between us.
00:37:09My whole body shakes under him and I don't make a sound.
00:37:12I just hold his face and watch him watch me.
00:37:16He follows me a minute later.
00:37:17He whispers something in the old language against my collarbone.
00:37:22What did you say?
00:37:25My mother's full name.
00:37:27I haven't said it to another person in 15 years.
00:37:32I wanted her to hear yours.
00:37:35I wake up to my mother in the doorway.
00:37:38She is in her dressing gown with no makeup on.
00:37:41She has been up all night.
00:37:43Leisner is asleep on his front beside me.
00:37:46One arm is thrown across my waist.
00:37:48The brand on his ribs is showing in the morning light.
00:37:51She sees the brand.
00:37:52She covers her mouth with both hands.
00:37:54I sit up slowly.
00:37:56I don't move his arm.
00:37:59Mom.
00:38:01Sienna.
00:38:02Come in or don't.
00:38:03Don't stand in the doorway.
00:38:05She comes in.
00:38:06She sits on the edge of the bed.
00:38:09She looks at his face.
00:38:11She looks at the bite on my neck.
00:38:13She looks back at his face again.
00:38:15Your father told me everything.
00:38:17The grandmother.
00:38:18The estate.
00:38:19The uncle who paid people to do this to him.
00:38:22And you brought him home this morning.
00:38:24After one night.
00:38:26Yes.
00:38:27She puts her hand on my knee through the blanket.
00:38:29I'm going to say something.
00:38:31You are going to let me say it.
00:38:33Go ahead.
00:38:35For 18 months I have watched the pure blood we bought you.
00:38:38I have watched him ignore you in this house.
00:38:40I told myself it was an adjustment.
00:38:42I told myself it was Cora's fault.
00:38:44I told myself it was the perfume.
00:38:47Mom.
00:38:48Let me finish.
00:38:50I am 60 years old.
00:38:52I don't know what to do with my face.
00:38:55I take her hand in mine.
00:38:58Tell me you're sorry.
00:39:00That's what you do with your face.
00:39:02She doesn't move for a while.
00:39:05I'm sorry.
00:39:06For Sullivan and for Cora.
00:39:08For all of it.
00:39:09For 18 years of looking for you and giving up.
00:39:13I am sorry, Sienna.
00:39:15I don't say anything back.
00:39:17She doesn't expect me to.
00:39:18She stands up from the bed.
00:39:21Your father is in the study.
00:39:23The lawyer is on his way over.
00:39:25The estate has to be moved out of Prabodi today.
00:39:28Otherwise your uncle's brother files a claim by noon.
00:39:34Tell him I'm coming down.
00:39:38She stops at the door.
00:39:41She looks back at me.
00:39:44Sienna.
00:39:46What is it?
00:39:47Whatever this one is.
00:39:48Whatever they call him in their old language.
00:39:50He is the one I would have picked for you.
00:39:54If I had been the kind of mother who got to pick.
00:39:57She closes the door behind her.
00:40:02Lysener's arm tightens on my waist.
00:40:04He has been awake for the last minute.
00:40:07Your mother just apologized to you.
00:40:11She did.
00:40:12In English.
00:40:14I noticed.
00:40:15My mother would have liked her.
00:40:17I kiss his shoulder.
00:40:19The scarred one.
00:40:22Get up.
00:40:23The lawyer arrives in 20 minutes.
00:40:26The lawyer arrives at 9.
00:40:28He sets his briefcase on my father's desk.
00:40:32He is 60-something in a gray suit.
00:40:34He has been delivering complicated news for 30 years.
00:40:39Mr. Quinn.
00:40:40Miss Quinn.
00:40:41Lord Drenom.
00:40:42Lysander doesn't react to the title.
00:40:45He sits in the chair next to mine.
00:40:47His hand stays on the back of my chair.
00:40:49The estate of Lady Alias Drenom was promoted in chambers last week.
00:40:55Her amended will was executed three days before her death.
00:40:59Three witnesses signed it.
00:41:02Read it to us.
00:41:04He reads it out loud.
00:41:06The estate of Lady Alias Drenom passes in full.
00:41:09It goes to the human woman bonded to her grandson.
00:41:12To Lysandor of the North Forest.
00:41:14By name, Sienna Quinn.
00:41:16I sit there for a moment.
00:41:19The lawyer waits patiently.
00:41:23How much exactly?
00:41:26Eight hundred and forty million dollars in assets.
00:41:29Lands in three districts.
00:41:31A coastal harbor.
00:41:32Two textile mills.
00:41:34A working mine.
00:41:36A house you will never need to set foot in.
00:41:39Not if you don't wish to.
00:41:41Why me?
00:41:42She didn't trust her own house to protect her grandson.
00:41:46She made you the shield instead.
00:41:50She never met me.
00:41:51She had three people watching you for nine months.
00:41:55She knew exactly who she was leaving it to.
00:41:58Lysander hasn't moved during any of this.
00:42:01I turned to him.
00:42:02Did you know about this?
00:42:04No, I didn't.
00:42:05Did you suspect?
00:42:06I suspected she had someone watching me.
00:42:09I didn't know it was you.
00:42:11I didn't know it was already done.
00:42:14I look at the lawyer.
00:42:16Can I refuse it?
00:42:18You can.
00:42:19The estate then passes to the next eligible heir.
00:42:22Your husband's uncle.
00:42:23Lord Varric.
00:42:25I look at Lysanium.
00:42:28I'm not refusing it.
00:42:32No.
00:42:34It's not for me.
00:42:36It's for the boy in the chair.
00:42:44Yes.
00:42:46I sign the papers.
00:42:48There are 43 pages of them.
00:42:51The lawyer's pen runs out halfway through.
00:42:54My father gives him a new one.
00:42:58When it is done, the lawyer stands up.
00:43:01He bows slightly to be polite.
00:43:04Lady Drenum.
00:43:05Don't call me that yet.
00:43:07It is the name on the deed now, Mom.
00:43:09He leaves the study.
00:43:12My father pours himself the Berndi he didn't drink yesterday.
00:43:16He drinks it down now.
00:43:19Now, Sienna.
00:43:20Dad.
00:43:22I gave you a pure blood for your birthday.
00:43:25He was the most expensive thing in this house.
00:43:28I remember.
00:43:29He is now the fourth most expensive thing in this house.
00:43:34And that is only counting your husband.
00:43:38The estate is the first.
00:43:41He looks at at Lysal either.
00:43:44Sotheby's take Sullivan tomorrow.
00:43:48Open auction.
00:43:49No reserve.
00:43:51Dad, not the auction.
00:43:54There's a retired doctor in Maine.
00:43:56He works with show orcs who couldn't adjust.
00:43:59Sullivan is going to relearn how to be a person.
00:44:02Without a master.
00:44:03My father studies my face.
00:44:05You are kinder than I would be in your place.
00:44:09I'm not kind.
00:44:11I'm just done with all of it.
00:44:16He nods.
00:44:17He picks up the phone to make the call.
00:44:21Six months later, the doctor in Maine writes back.
00:44:24Sullivan is feeding his feed himself.
00:44:26He answers to his own name now.
00:44:29Lysander squeezes my hand under the desk.
00:44:32I squeeze back.
00:44:34Outside the study window, Cora is on the lawn with her suitcase.
00:44:42Cora is in the garden when I find her.
00:44:44Her suitcase is open on the lawn.
00:44:46The housekeeper is folding sweaters into it carefully.
00:44:50Cora is sitting on the stone bench.
00:44:52Her arms are wrapped around her knees.
00:44:55She is 17 years old.
00:44:57She looks 12.
00:44:59I leave on Friday.
00:45:01I know.
00:45:02I packed half of this myself.
00:45:05I saw you did.
00:45:09I sit down next to her on the bench.
00:45:12Sis.
00:45:14What is it?
00:45:15I saw you and him in the hallway last night.
00:45:18Anne.
00:45:20He put his hand on the back of your head.
00:45:23The way Sully puts his hand on mine when I'm crying.
00:45:28Cora.
00:45:28That isn't what I want to say.
00:45:30What I want to say is this.
00:45:31That was the first time in 18 months.
00:45:34The first time I have seen someone touch you like a person.
00:45:38Mom and dad don't ever touch you.
00:45:40Sully doesn't touch you.
00:45:42I throw things at you.
00:45:43You don't have anybody, sis.
00:45:48I have him now.
00:45:49That's exactly what I'm saying.
00:45:51She turns on the bench to face me.
00:45:54I have been telling myself this story for two years.
00:45:58The story is that you stole my life from me.
00:46:00You came in.
00:46:02You pushed me out of every spot I had.
00:46:05Maybe that's true.
00:46:06A little.
00:46:08But I watched you walk into the foyer yesterday.
00:46:11Your hair was unwashed.
00:46:13There was a bite mark on your throat.
00:46:14A seven-foot orc walked in behind you.
00:46:17And I realized something.
00:46:19What?
00:46:21You weren't pushing me out.
00:46:23You were finally walking in.
00:46:25You have been outside this family the entire time.
00:46:28I just couldn't see it before.
00:46:29I am quiet for a long moment.
00:46:32I'm not asking you to forgive me.
00:46:34I'm asking you to let me write to you.
00:46:37Every Sunday.
00:46:38Handwritten letters.
00:46:40Mailed at the end of every month.
00:46:44Yes.
00:46:46I'll write back to one in three.
00:46:47Not when you're performing.
00:46:49When you stop performing.
00:46:51Deal.
00:46:52She wipes her face with the back of her hand.
00:46:55He is going to be your husband for real, isn't he?
00:46:59He already is.
00:47:01We're doing the rest of the paperwork next week.
00:47:03Can I come to the wedding?
00:47:05Yes.
00:47:07Even from Switzerland?
00:47:08We'll fly you back for the day.
00:47:10You can come back at Christmas every year, too.
00:47:14Lindenburg until 21.
00:47:16Then we see who you've become.
00:47:18She nods at that.
00:47:20She puts her head on my shoulder.
00:47:23She hasn't done that since she was 11.
00:47:26I remember the exact date.
00:47:33Sis.
00:47:35He loves you.
00:47:37I know that.
00:47:38He loves you in a way Sully never loved me.
00:47:41I figured it out this morning.
00:47:43How did you figure it out?
00:47:46Sully loved being mine.
00:47:49Lysitter loves you.
00:47:51She gets up from the bench.
00:47:52She goes back to her suitcase.
00:47:54I sit there a moment longer.
00:47:57The housekeeper folds another sweater.
00:47:59The sun moves on the lawn.
00:48:02Tonight, Lysander and I have a tattoo to get.
00:48:07That night, Lysander and I drive into the city.
00:48:10We go to a tattoo shop on the Lower East Side.
00:48:13The artist is a woman in her 50s.
00:48:16Half her face is tattooed already.
00:48:18She doesn't blink at his size or at his face.
00:48:21She says only one thing.
00:48:23Show me what we're covering.
00:48:25He lifts his shirt.
00:48:28The brand is right there.
00:48:30The number 12.
00:48:31The raised ridges of the six older numbers are visible underneath.
00:48:35What do you want to put over it?
00:48:37Her name.
00:48:38She looks over at me.
00:48:40She doesn't ask if I am sure about this.
00:48:44What font.
00:48:46Whatever he wants.
00:48:48I want to be able to read it from across a room.
00:48:52She draws something on tracing paper.
00:48:54She holds the paper up to his ribs.
00:48:56The word reads Sienna in tall block letters.
00:48:59Tall enough to swallow the brand whole.
00:49:02Tall enough to swallow the six numbers underneath it.
00:49:05That one.
00:49:06She does the work.
00:49:08It takes four hours.
00:49:11He doesn't make a single sound the whole time.
00:49:14He keeps his eyes on me.
00:49:16I sit on a stool beside the table.
00:49:18I hold his hand.
00:49:20I don't let go once.
00:49:22When she is finished.
00:49:23She wipes him down.
00:49:25She wraps the ribs in plastic.
00:49:28She steps back to look.
00:49:30Lord Draynon.
00:49:31I don't work on Highborn.
00:49:33I have never been asked to.
00:49:36Why me tonight?
00:49:37Because you don't work on Highborn.
00:49:39Because you wouldn't have done this for my uncle.
00:49:41Because this is not a Drenum tattoo.
00:49:43She nods slowly.
00:49:46She understands what he means.
00:49:49He sits up on the table.
00:49:50He looks down at his own side.
00:49:53The word Sienna sits under the plastic.
00:49:55The skin is red around the edges and starting to scab over.
00:49:59The brand is gone.
00:50:00The six numbers under it are gone.
00:50:02Everything is gone except my name on him.
00:50:05He puts his hand flat over it.
00:50:07His eyes fill with tears.
00:50:09You did it.
00:50:10I told you I would.
00:50:14Your name is on me now.
00:50:16The number is gone.
00:50:18They do.
00:50:19He pays the artist three times what she charged him.
00:50:23She doesn't argue with that.
00:50:25In the car, he keeps his hand over the tattoo.
00:50:28The whole way home.
00:50:31Sienna.
00:50:32What is it?
00:50:33My grandmother left you $840 million.
00:50:38I'm aware of that.
00:50:40And you took me to a tattoo shop in a strip mall.
00:50:43I had to keep my promise to you.
00:50:47He laughs quietly at that.
00:50:49Will you marry me, Sienna?
00:50:51The legal kind, with the paper and the witnesses.
00:50:55So when somebody asks me what I am, my answer doesn't start with the word mongrel.
00:51:03Yes.
00:51:05When?
00:51:06Next Saturday.
00:51:08The garden.
00:51:09Cora flies back for the day.
00:51:11My father walks me out.
00:51:13And your mother?
00:51:16My mother is doing my hair.
00:51:18She told me this morning.
00:51:19I didn't even ask her.
00:51:22He kisses my hand.
00:51:24The one I am still holding his with.
00:51:28Saturday is six days away.
00:51:30Six days to plan a wedding.
00:51:33It is Saturday in the garden behind the house.
00:51:36There are 40 chairs set out.
00:51:38And white ribbon on every one.
00:51:41The housekeeper has been crying since dawn for reasons he won't explain.
00:51:46My mother does my hair on the back porch.
00:51:48She works in silence for a long time.
00:51:53Your grandmother had this hair.
00:51:55I never told you.
00:51:57I never met her.
00:51:59No, you didn't.
00:52:01She would have liked you.
00:52:03She would have hated him.
00:52:06Mom.
00:52:07That is a compliment.
00:52:09The women in my family always hated the right men.
00:52:13She secures the last pin.
00:52:15She steps back from the mirror.
00:52:18You look like her, Sienna.
00:52:20You haven't said that before.
00:52:23I haven't been able to say it.
00:52:26She sets the brush down.
00:52:29I'm going to sit in the front row.
00:52:31I am going to cry.
00:52:32Don't look at me.
00:52:33Look at him.
00:52:35I was already going, too.
00:52:37She kisses the top of my head.
00:52:39She walks down to the garden.
00:52:42Cora comes in wearing a white dress.
00:52:44She is the maid of honor.
00:52:45We didn't announce this.
00:52:47She just showed up in it.
00:52:49He's already there, sis.
00:52:51I can see him through the window.
00:52:54He is in a black coat with a dark red lining.
00:52:57Those are the North Forest colors.
00:53:00His mother's seal is on the collar.
00:53:01The lawyer in Geneva sent it over.
00:53:05He is standing at the end of the garden in the sun.
00:53:08His eyes are closed.
00:53:10Cora hands me the bouquet.
00:53:12Don't trip, sis.
00:53:14I won't trip.
00:53:17My father is in the doorway behind us.
00:53:19He has stopped shaking these last few days.
00:53:22Sweetheart.
00:53:24Daddy.
00:53:25I gave you a pure blood for your 22nd birthday.
00:53:31I remember.
00:53:32I want to give you something today.
00:53:35Something I should have given you back then.
00:53:38Permission to walk out of any room.
00:53:41Any room you don't want to be in.
00:53:44You're a little late on that, Dad.
00:53:47I know.
00:53:48Take it anyway.
00:53:49He puts my hand on his arm.
00:53:51He walks me down the aisle.
00:53:54Lysander opens his eyes.
00:53:56He has been waiting since 10 in the morning.
00:53:58He isn't going to miss a single step now.
00:54:02My father puts my hand in his hand.
00:54:05Take care of her, son.
00:54:06The first 18 years I didn't.
00:54:09Yes, sir.
00:54:10The priest is the chaplain from our parish church.
00:54:13He reads in English.
00:54:16Lysander asked him for this.
00:54:17He says the vows.
00:54:19I say the vows back.
00:54:21The priest closes the book.
00:54:22There is one tradition I have been asked to honor.
00:54:25Lord Drenjan, speak the name your mother gave you.
00:54:29Loud enough for the garden to hear.
00:54:32Lysander doesn't turn to face the chairs.
00:54:34He turns to face me instead.
00:54:37He says it.
00:54:39Three syllables in the old language.
00:54:42The chairs are quiet for a beat.
00:54:44Then 40 people say it back in two languages at once.
00:54:47My parents, Cora, the housekeeper and the lawyer,
00:54:50the tattoo artist in the back row.
00:54:52The priest turns to me.
00:54:53Lady Drennaman, there is no human tradition for this part.
00:54:58Say what you wish to say.
00:55:00I look out at the chairs and speak up.
00:55:04My name is Sienna Drenwal.
00:55:06I bought him in an alley with cash.
00:55:08He's mine now.
00:55:10The garden laughs at that.
00:55:12Lysander does not.
00:55:14His eyes are wet.
00:55:16He leans down to me.
00:55:18He kisses my face first.
00:55:21Then my mouth.
00:55:22The priest closes the book.
00:55:25It was an intimate reception.
00:55:2740 chairs were placed around round tables.
00:55:29At 8 o'clock, the garden was lit up with lanterns.
00:55:34My father stands first.
00:55:35He taps his glass with a fork.
00:55:39I had a speech written.
00:55:40I'm not going to give it tonight.
00:55:42I'm going to say one thing instead.
00:55:44He looks at Lysander.
00:55:46My daughter ate breakfast alone in this house for 18 months.
00:55:50She doesn't anymore.
00:55:52That's because of you.
00:55:55Sit down.
00:55:56Eat the cake.
00:55:59Lysander sits back down.
00:56:01Cora stands up next.
00:56:03She is shaking.
00:56:05She has never given a speech.
00:56:07My sister came home at 23.
00:56:10The day she walked through the door,
00:56:12I threw a butter knife at her head.
00:56:14I missed by an inch.
00:56:15I have spent two years wishing I had not missed.
00:56:20The garden goes very still.
00:56:22I'm leaving for Switzerland on Tuesday.
00:56:25I am going to be a different person when I come back.
00:56:29Not because she sent me away.
00:56:32Because she came and found me crying last week.
00:56:35And she didn't have to.
00:56:36I look up at her.
00:56:38My father has been talking to her about more than I knew.
00:56:43I want her husband to know something too.
00:56:47You take care of her.
00:56:48That's all I'm asking.
00:56:51For as long as you walk.
00:56:52Lysander stands.
00:56:55He bows slightly to her.
00:56:58Yes.
00:56:59She sits down crying.
00:57:01My mother takes her hand under the table.
00:57:04Later, there is dancing.
00:57:07Lysander has never been allowed to dance.
00:57:10The first thing he does is step on my foot.
00:57:12I'm sorry, Sienna.
00:57:14That was your foot.
00:57:16Try again.
00:57:17He tries again.
00:57:19He steps on my foot again.
00:57:23I am terrible at this.
00:57:25You are terrible.
00:57:27Keep going anyway.
00:57:29By the fifth song, he isn't terrible anymore.
00:57:32He has stopped looking down at his feet.
00:57:35My mother dances with my father.
00:57:38They haven't danced together in a decade.
00:57:40He cries on her shoulder, quietly.
00:57:43She pretends not to notice.
00:57:45At eleven, I find Lysander at the edge of the garden.
00:57:48He has two glasses of champagne.
00:57:53For me?
00:57:54For you.
00:57:55I take one.
00:57:56We sit on the stone bench, where Cora and I sat last week.
00:58:01Lady Drennaman.
00:58:03Don't start with that.
00:58:04You'll have to get used to it eventually.
00:58:06Just not tonight.
00:58:07We are quiet together for a moment.
00:58:13I have a question, Sienna.
00:58:15I've been holding it since the bath.
00:58:17Ask me anything.
00:58:19The first night in the alley, the trader said I was already ruined.
00:58:23Why did you say yes?
00:58:25I told you.
00:58:26Because nobody else would.
00:58:28Is that the whole answer?
00:58:29No, it isn't.
00:58:33Tell me the rest.
00:58:35I thought you were like me.
00:58:37That we could be together.
00:58:40He puts down his glass.
00:58:42Sienna.
00:58:44Since the first time I held you, I have been afraid you would not stay.
00:58:48I am staying.
00:58:51He picks me up off the bench.
00:58:53He carries me through the garden to the back door.
00:58:55The garden is empty by now.
00:58:57The lanterns are still on.
00:59:00Take me upstairs, husband.
00:59:03Yes.
00:59:05We are in our bedroom.
00:59:07The fire is in the hearth.
00:59:09The door is closed behind us.
00:59:11He sets me down on the rug.
00:59:13He kneels down in front of me.
00:59:15He undoes the dress slowly.
00:59:16The same way he did it the first night in this house.
00:59:21He stops when the bodice falls.
00:59:23I need to tell you something before tonight starts.
00:59:28I sit down on the rug with him.
00:59:30Tell me what it is.
00:59:32I'm going to wake up tomorrow and you'll still be here.
00:59:34And the day after.
00:59:37I didn't believe that until today.
00:59:40What changed today?
00:59:42Forty men in your garden called out my mother's name.
00:59:45You stood before them all.
00:59:49You said you bought me from an alley.
00:59:51You said it loudly.
00:59:54He puts his hand over the tattoo on his ribs.
00:59:57Your name is on me.
00:59:59Everyone in that garden knows it.
01:00:02They do.
01:00:04He leans his forehead against mine.
01:00:07I'm yours.
01:00:09You're mine.
01:00:10I press my forehead back against his.
01:00:14I pull him down to the rug with me.
01:00:16I put my mouth on the tattoo.
01:00:21Lay back for me.
01:00:24He lays back on the rug.
01:00:27I want to look at you tonight.
01:00:31Look at me then.
01:00:32I sit on his hips.
01:00:34I put his hands on my waist.
01:00:36I move slow.
01:00:38He watches me the whole time.
01:00:40Neither of us is in a hurry.
01:00:43We have time now.
01:00:45When I come, he holds me through it.
01:00:50He doesn't look away once.
01:00:52He follows me a minute later.
01:00:55He sits up afterward.
01:00:57He pulls me against his chest.
01:00:59He puts his mouth on the bite on my throat.
01:01:01The scar is healed now.
01:01:03He kisses it instead of biting it.
01:01:07I love you, Sienna Drennan.
01:01:10I love you too, Lysander.
01:01:12He pulls the blanket down over us.
01:01:17The fire is still going in the hearth.
01:01:22He falls asleep on his back with his hand over the tattoo.
01:01:26His other hand stays on my hip.
01:01:28I lie awake for a few minutes,
01:01:30listening to him breathe steady.
01:01:35Eighteen months ago, I ate breakfast alone.
01:01:37Three weeks ago, I bought a man in an alley.
01:01:41Tonight, my husband is asleep on the rug.
01:01:45My name is on his ribs.
01:01:47Best money I ever spent.
01:01:49I close my eyes and sleep.
01:01:51I look forwarded.
01:01:53I love you.
01:01:53See you next time.
01:01:53Bye-bye.
Comments