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This Time, She Chose the Serpent King.full | Full 30 Eps SD Drama 2026
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00:00My half-sister and I both chose a shifter mate.
00:03In our previous life, she picked first and chose the Hawk Clan heir
00:06with the perfect looks and powerful family background.
00:09She left me the lowly serpent.
00:11Three years into her marriage, the Hawk Shifter's mistress and illegitimate son
00:15knelt before my sister and humiliated her completely.
00:20Meanwhile, I took control of the entire serpent clan and earned my husband's devotion.
00:25She pushed me off a cliff out of jealousy.
00:27When I opened my eyes, I was back on the day we chose our mates.
00:30My sister barely concealed the excitement in her voice
00:33as she rushed to wrap her arms around a serpent's tail.
00:36I knew then that she had been reborn too.
00:39The serpent clan are lustful by nature.
00:41I wonder how long she'll last.
00:42When Victoria threw her arms around that serpent tail,
00:45face flushed with open adoration, even Lady Hargrove went still.
00:50Everyone knew the serpent clan was considered the lowest of the shifter races.
00:54Cold-blooded in every sense.
00:56The Hawk Clan, by contrast, made it for life.
00:59One wife, no exceptions.
01:01Loyalty written into their bones.
01:03And the Hawk male standing in the room today was the future clan leader.
01:07Sharp-eyed, broad-shouldered,
01:09the kind of man every woman in the room had been silently hoping to catch.
01:13Victoria still wouldn't let go of that tail.
01:15Lady Hargrove's expression curdled.
01:17She'd brought the serpent here specifically to humiliate me.
01:21She hadn't planned on her own daughter falling for it.
01:23Are you sure about this?
01:26Mother, he's the only one I'll ever marry.
01:28Even the serpent turned to look at her.
01:30His tail coiled hard around her waist, pulling her tight against his chest.
01:34That was what a serpent did when he felt something.
01:37The beginning of desire.
01:38Victoria's face went scarlet.
01:40Her resolve locked into place.
01:42Lady Hargrove pressed her lips together and gave in.
01:44With that settled, the Hawk male, Adrian Ashford, turned to me.
01:48He dipped his head in a slight, unhurried bow.
01:51Then it's you, Miss Alara.
01:53I'll send the betrothal gifts tomorrow.
01:55In my past life, it was Victoria who had chosen Adrian.
01:59She'd walked into the Ashford estate as its new mistress,
02:02draped in the prestige of the most powerful Hawk family in the region.
02:06He seemed devoted on the surface.
02:07Three years of polished appearances.
02:09Then, a woman appeared at the gate with his ten-year-old son.
02:13Victoria came apart.
02:14She ran home to her mother, dignity in pieces.
02:17But Adrian had spent years building his reputation carefully.
02:20He brought the woman and boy home under the excuse of a drunken mistake.
02:24And to protect the Hawk Clan's tradition against taking a second wife,
02:27he divorced Victoria outright.
02:29Lady Hargrove marched back to the Ashford estate to demand answers.
02:33The mistress met them at the door, chin lifted.
02:35I'm Mrs. Ashford now.
02:37My son has awakened his abilities.
02:39What exactly are you going to do about that?
02:41Give it time.
02:43I'll be the clan leader's wife, then his mother.
02:45They were thrown out publicly.
02:47After that, Victoria unraveled.
02:49She sat in the courtyard every day, vacant and muttering.
02:52When someone passed close enough,
02:54she grabbed their leg with both hands, her face twisting.
02:57I'm the clan leader's wife!
02:59I am!
03:00I am!
03:01She never came back from it.
03:03My serpent husband, by contrast, had been born into nothing.
03:06But he dismissed every one of his kept women.
03:09He trained relentlessly and built his clan up from scraps.
03:12People said I'd made the better choice, after all.
03:15Even Lady Hargrove, who had never bothered to hide her contempt for me,
03:19started showing up at my door with smiles she didn't mean, asking me to visit.
03:24Then, Victoria had one of her lucid moments.
03:27She lured me to the edge of the cliff.
03:29I'll drag you down to hell with me.
03:31Her eyes opened her hatred as she shoved me over.
03:35Now she's chosen my husband instead.
03:37I wonder if she can handle the serpent's excessive affection.
03:41The Ashford betrothal gifts arrived quickly.
03:44They filled half the courtyard.
03:45Victoria didn't spare a glance for the serpent clan's meager offering.
03:49She sweet-talked Lady Hargrove into patting her trousseau until it groaned.
03:53Ivy told me that Victoria and her serpent had been meeting in secret.
03:57Someone had spotted them coming out of an alley together.
04:00Clothes barely clinging to them, her face still flushed.
04:03Half the street had seen it.
04:05She came to me the same afternoon, brimming.
04:07My fiancé loves me!
04:09What does that have to do with you?
04:11This is just how he shows his love for me.
04:14And if you say a single word to mother about any of it,
04:18I'll make your life miserable.
04:21I just watched her go.
04:22She looked nothing like the girl she used to be.
04:24The softness was gone.
04:26Whatever innocence had been in her face had been thoroughly used up.
04:29On our wedding day, two wedding horse carriage left the estate together.
04:33Drums, horns, the whole performance.
04:35Adrian Ashford sat high on a pale horse in his wedding light.
04:39All clean lines and devastating bone structure, looking exactly like someone who knew it.
04:44I knew why he'd gone through with this.
04:46The matriarch once said to him,
04:48You are the only heir.
04:49You must marry a noble woman to continue the bloodline.
04:52That was the only condition for me to inherit the clan leadership.
04:55But his mistress was low-born, ineligible.
04:58He needed a proper wife.
04:59If she gave him a son first, better.
05:01Either way, he didn't lose.
05:03I set down my wedding bouquet.
05:04Two familiar figures had appeared at the side of the road.
05:07Father!
05:07The boy lunged toward Adrian's horse.
05:10The word was barely out before a beautiful woman yanked him back and smothered his mouth with her hand.
05:14Forgive us, everyone.
05:15My son misses his father.
05:18He got confused.
05:19He didn't mean anything by it.
05:21Adrian pulled his reins top.
05:22He exhaled once.
05:24Today is my wedding.
05:25Can't you keep your child in hand?
05:27If he'd startled the horse carriage, I'd have had all your heads.
05:31Get them out of here.
05:31The woman's face went white.
05:33She bit her lip and stepped back.
05:34I'm so sorry.
05:36We're leaving.
05:37I wasn't about to let this dissolve quietly.
05:40Husband, don't be so hard on them.
05:43The child didn't mean any harm.
05:44And today is a happy occasion.
05:46Why not do a good deed?
05:48I actually need another servant woman as my side.
05:50If she's willing, she could come along with us.
05:53This woman had one obsession.
05:55Becoming Mrs. Ashford.
05:56Now that Adrian had taken a wife, she was already fraying at the edges.
06:00One of my people needed barely three sentences to maneuver her into showing up here today.
06:04If I offered her a door to the estate, she'd walk through it without thinking.
06:08She hesitated for half a breath, then looked away from Adrian's sharp, warning stare.
06:13Thank you, ma'am.
06:13The carriage rolled on.
06:15She followed behind, boy in hand.
06:17The crowd murmured approvingly along the route.
06:19The new Mrs. Ashford is something else.
06:22Even after that scene, she finds them a position.
06:25Must run in the family.
06:27The Ashfords are good people.
06:28After the ceremony, I sat at my vanity and began fixing my hair.
06:32Ivy dismissed the others and shut the door, her face barely holding its composure.
06:37Ma'am, the master just had a servant quietly move that woman and boy into the side courtyard.
06:42I wasn't surprised.
06:43Ma'am, the Hawk Clan has rules against taking a second wife.
06:47And he's doing this on your wedding night.
06:50We could expose him right now.
06:51Go back to your family.
06:52End this before it starts.
06:54Calm down.
06:55I didn't come here to lose to a kept woman.
06:57I had no family worth running back to.
06:59No mother, no father who would take my side against the Ashfords.
07:02I'd walk through that gate as a piece on someone else's board.
07:06If I walked back out, I'd be spit on from every direction.
07:10I hadn't come all this way for nothing.
07:12What I wanted was the Ashford estate itself.
07:15Adrian could rot on the inside.
07:17I didn't need him to be good.
07:19I needed him to give me an heir.
07:21A knock at the door.
07:22I smiled at Ivy.
07:23My leverage just arrived.
07:25Adrian was drunk, but gracefully so.
07:28His steps wandered a little.
07:29It did nothing to make him less attractive.
07:32Ivy moved to steady him.
07:33He shrugged her off.
07:34I only want my wife.
07:35I swallowed the contempt rising in my chest and sent Ivy out.
07:39He played the part of a restrained gentleman, even when he was half gone.
07:43I had to admire the consistency.
07:45I took his arm.
07:46You've had too much.
07:48Should I have the kitchen send sobering soup?
07:50The kitchen sat close to the side courtyard.
07:52At this hour, they'd probably be preparing food for his little family.
07:56Adrian's shoulders went rigid.
07:58Then his hand caught mine.
07:59He buried his face against my shoulder.
08:02No.
08:03This is our wedding night.
08:05Don't leave.
08:06He let out a slow breath and lifted me.
08:08I looped my arms around his neck.
08:10In my past life, Adrian had used drunkenness as an excuse to avoid Victoria's wedding bed entirely.
08:15She'd had to fight for three months before he relented.
08:19And only after she humiliated herself back into his good graces.
08:23If this was going to happen eventually, I'd rather it happen on my terms and in my time.
08:28I let myself go still.
08:30Let my body stop resisting.
08:32Adrian's voice dropped.
08:33Whatever restraint he'd been maintaining came loose.
08:36The candles burned down to nothing before the room went quiet.
08:40I was too exhausted to move a finger.
08:42I passed out where I lay.
08:44He was the one who cleaned me up afterward.
08:46We were late for the morning tea ceremony.
08:48The matriarch was good-natured about it.
08:49She directed her mild scolding at Adrian, who was leaning back in his chair, looking thoroughly satisfied.
08:54In a generous mood for once, he cut her off to defend me before she could finish.
09:12I kept my hands steady as I accepted them.
09:27With those keys, no one in this estate could question my standing.
09:30No one could use my birth against me.
09:32In my past life, as a wife in the Serpent Clan, I'd had to claw my way through sisters-in
09:37-law,
09:38who outranked me by blood and never let me forget her.
09:41It had taken months of careful maneuvering just to find my footing.
09:45That was behind me now.
09:46The matriarch saw my expression shift.
09:48She sighed softly and took the necklace off her own neck, placing it onto mine.
09:52This child has suffered enough.
09:54You treat her well from here on.
09:56I mean it.
09:57Adrian blinked.
09:58He looked at my slightly reddened eyes and, almost without meaning to, nodded.
10:01On the way back from the matriarch's rooms, I walked half a step behind Adrian,
10:04already thinking through which accounts to look at first.
10:06He spoke without turning around.
10:07What do you plan to do about that woman and the boy?
10:09And tucked my hand into the crook of his arm.
10:11I didn't realize you were so concerned about them.
10:13Isn't that sweet of you?
10:15He avoided my eyes.
10:16I just feel sorry for them.
10:17A widow with a child.
10:19Perhaps they could work in the outer courtyard, do some light tasks.
10:22The outer courtyard was full of staff.
10:23No one would track a woman's particular history there.
10:26Adrian would find ways to meet with her in private, use the crowd as cover.
10:28I exhaled slowly, as if thinking it through.
10:31A pretty woman with a child alone people might take advantage.
10:34You really haven't thought this through, have you?
10:36What if we put them somewhere quieter, near the garden behind the study?
10:40Adrian's brow tightened, almost imperceptibly.
10:42A long pause.
10:43Then his face settled into something soft.
10:45Good thinking.
10:46There's a small room off the study anyway.
10:48They can stay there.
10:49How thoughtful of you.
10:50I smiled.
10:50My nails were nearly through my palm.
10:52The study.
10:53He'd have every excuse to be near her.
10:55And the boy.
10:55He'd be able to teach him in private.
10:57Pass him what he needed to awaken properly.
10:59Adrian didn't notice.
11:00The careful coldness he usually wore had softened around the edges.
11:03In a few years, when our child comes, I'll make sure they have the best of everything.
11:06I leaned against him.
11:08The passing maids whispered to each other.
11:09The master and mistress.
11:11So in love.
11:12Rosalind heard it too.
11:13That same night, she went to find Adrian.
11:15And he turned her away at the door.
11:17Three nights in a row, he came to my room instead.
11:19He was decent enough to read the room.
11:21He didn't push past what I could manage.
11:28The day we returned to visit my family home, Victoria didn't arrive until almost noon.
11:32She swept into the room, glowing.
11:34Cheeks high with color.
11:35Trailing a thick cloud of powder and perfume.
11:37Lady Hargrove stared at her for a long moment.
11:39Don't fuss, mother.
11:41My husband spoils me.
11:42Very restorative herbs.
11:43She straightened, and I noticed that her figure had changed.
11:47Filled out in a way that read less like health and more like something under strain.
11:51She looked at me.
11:52Your husband runs cold, I hear.
11:54If he's distant with you, that's just how it goes.
11:56Don't take it personally.
11:58I said nothing.
11:59I took my time looking at her.
12:00She seemed bright on the surface, but her steps were unsteady.
12:03She kept touching her lower back without realizing it.
12:05That kind of bloom didn't come from nourishment.
12:06It came from something taking more than a system.
12:08The serpent was greedy.
12:09When she noticed I wasn't reacting, something dark moved through her.
12:12She reached for me the way she used to when we were younger, to grab and drag.
12:16Adrian walked in.
12:17There was a smile in his eyes as he spoke to me gently.
12:21Alara, I just came from the room you used to live in.
12:25Victoria's hand froze in midair.
12:26She stared at Adrian in shock, stunned by how different he was from the man in our previous life.
12:34How is this possible?
12:36Lady Hargrove's expression folded.
12:37They both knew.
12:38The room I'd been given in this house was barely a storeroom.
12:41The dishes had chips in them.
12:42Lady Hargrove laughed awkwardly and cut him off.
12:44Now that everyone's here, why don't we sit down for lunch?
12:47She looked at me.
12:48It was almost a plea.
12:49Once, when my birth mother had a bad fever and I'd gone to beg for a doctor, I'd knelt in
12:53the courtyard in the snow.
12:54The snow piled up on my shoulders, while Lady Hargrove and Victoria stayed warm inside, laughing at something I couldn't
13:00hear.
13:01She finally came out when I nearly passed out.
13:03Get the doctor.
13:04Don't let her die in my yard.
13:05It's bad luck.
13:06The doctor came.
13:07He kept my mother alive a little longer.
13:08I held her hand and sobbed until I couldn't breathe anymore.
13:11Keep going.
13:13No matter how hard it gets, don't give up.
13:17I never got to go back to her.
13:18By the time I was reborn, she was already gone.
13:20I smoothed the front of my dress and stood up.
13:23Husband, let's eat.
13:24At the table, Victoria and the Serpent fed each other and giggled like they were alone in the room.
13:28She shot me looks every few minutes, daring me to react.
13:31Lady Hargrove could see something was wrong.
13:32She kept trying to quietly reel Victoria in.
13:34Victoria snapped back, loud enough for the table to hear.
13:39My husband loves me.
13:41Am I supposed to be ashamed of that?
13:43Should I live like I'm already a widow?
13:46The moment the meal was over, she dragged him out the door.
13:49Adrian and I didn't linger long after that.
13:51When we got back to the main hall of the Ashford Estate,
13:53I found Rosalyn crouched beside the matriarch,
13:56kneading her shoulders with practiced hands.
13:58The matriarch had her eyes half closed,
14:00looking more comfortable than I'd seen her in days.
14:05Rosalyn, you have such skilled hands.
14:11Come do this for me often.
14:16I didn't realize she'd caught your eye.
14:19She came in with us on the wedding day.
14:22Quite a hard life raising a child alone.
14:24I've tried to look out for her.
14:26I know what kind of heart you have.
14:29The Ashfords are lucky to have you.
14:31Rosalyn stepped back, her teeth pressed into her lip.
14:35The matriarch and I moved naturally into conversation about the estate,
14:39the accounts, a few household matters that needed settling.
14:42When something important came up,
14:44the matriarch waved Rosalyn out of the room without thinking about it.
14:48I watched the hatred pool behind Rosalyn's eyes as she left.
14:52Over the days that followed,
14:53Rosalyn pushed hard for the matriarch's favor,
14:56massaged every ache, laughed at every small joke.
14:59It worked.
15:00The matriarch grew genuinely fond of her and started giving her gifts.
15:03Master Adrian says be careful, don't draw attention.
15:05He was so frustrated,
15:07he stopped seeing her altogether
15:08and started conducting estate business from my room instead.
15:13I was deep into the Ashford accounts.
15:15Shops, properties, land deeds.
15:18The full picture of what this family actually owned.
15:21It was substantial and deliberately tangled.
15:24Once I understood it, I called in the shop managers.
15:27They came in uncertain, squinting.
15:29Then they read the room, new wife, asserting herself.
15:32A few of them visibly relaxed into condescension.
15:35I let them sit with that for a moment.
15:37I finished my tea.
15:38The matriarch has placed all Ashfield business in my hands.
15:41I'm not going to waste her trust.
15:44I've been reviewing the last three months of records.
15:47I've already noted the discrepancies.
15:49I set down my cup.
15:51Ivy laid the ledgers open.
15:52A small personal notebook slipped out, filled with my annotations.
15:55Some of the managers exchanged glances.
15:58The ones with nothing to hide sat straight.
16:00The ones who didn't went pale.
16:02I looked at Ivy.
16:03She picked up the notebook and dropped it into the fire.
16:08New management.
16:09Old accounts are closed.
16:12But I have no tolerance for what comes next.
16:15I trust everyone understands that.
16:17Yes, ma'am.
16:19The estate's internal structure wasn't enough.
16:21Real power in the hot clan ran through these shops.
16:24These trade networks.
16:26The money that had kept the family elevated for generations.
16:29They needed the root.
16:31I came home late, satisfied.
16:33In the courtyard, I stopped.
16:35Rosalyn was crouched beside her boy, face lit with joy.
16:38Adrian stood nearby, watching them with a small smile.
16:41I moved before I'd finished thinking.
16:43I walked over and took Adrian's hand.
16:48What's happened?
16:51The boy.
16:52His abilities came in.
16:54A smile dropped off my face.
16:55In my past life, this had happened three years later,
16:58right before they entered the estate.
17:00Not now.
17:01Not this early.
17:02Aren't you something?
17:04Abilities at your age.
17:05Giving your mother so much to be proud of.
17:08You'd better take good care of her when you grow up.
17:11You're the bad woman who stole my dad.
17:15I'm so sorry, ma'am.
17:18I've spoiled him terribly.
17:20He doesn't know what he's saying.
17:21He really is spoiled.
17:23Speaking to his beauties this way is a serious breach.
17:26Per estate rules,
17:27He kneels in the courtyard for two hours.
17:29Rosalyn's color drained.
17:31She looked instinctively at Adrian.
17:33Adrian's brow pulled together.
17:35He's only a child.
17:36This is excessive.
17:37Let it go.
17:38If a child has no father to correct him,
17:40the mother answers for it.
17:42Or have I lost even that much authority in my own home?
17:45Is a servant woman more important to you than your wife?
17:48He closed his mouth.
17:50Rosalyn grabbed my sleeve.
17:51Her face was wet.
17:53I don't matter.
17:55But I'm due at the matriarch's.
17:57And if I'm late, she'll be displeased.
17:58I laughed once.
18:00Short and cold.
18:01And had a chair brought out to the courtyard.
18:03How bold.
18:04A woman brought in off the street is lecturing me in my own house.
18:08Someone go ask the matriarch if she'd weigh in on a servant who just spoke down to the estate's mistress.
18:12You're going too far.
18:13The boy didn't mean anything.
18:15Rosalyn stood just behind his shoulder.
18:17She reached out and curled her fingers gently around his sleeve.
18:21The three of them, together in the moonlight, they looked like a family portrait.
18:24Adrian was trembling with anger.
18:26He grabbed Rosalyn and the boy and started to walk them away.
18:29Ivy was faster.
18:30The matriarch says he kneels.
18:31Three hours.
18:32And cut off their meals and move them to the servant's storage room for the night.
18:35I looked at Adrian.
18:37Well, I left before he could answer.
18:39Adrian wouldn't defy the matriarch.
18:41The clan leadership still hadn't been formally transferred.
18:44And the matriarch said little, but punished any disobedience.
18:47Even Adrian knew better than to cross her.
18:49That was why I had spent every effort from the beginning, making the matriarch love me.
18:54That night, Adrian didn't come to my room.
18:57He sent a servant boy with a message.
18:59He'd be sleeping in the study.
19:01Ivy didn't take it well.
19:02The study.
19:03Right.
19:04She paced the length of the room, voice rising.
19:06Before the wedding, I actually thought you'd finally caught a break, miss.
19:09A decent man for once.
19:12Turns out he's just another wolf in silk.
19:14She caught herself.
19:15A hawk.
19:15Whatever.
19:16Same thing.
19:17I sat at the desk.
19:17Ledger open in front of me.
19:19Perfectly calm.
19:20Adrian was a predator.
19:21Fine.
19:22Then I'd be the still water he didn't notice until he was already drowning in it.
19:28By the following morning, it was everywhere.
19:30Adrian Ashford kept a mistress.
19:33The boy was seven years old.
19:34No one knew where the information came from.
19:37But the woman's name, her background, her address, the boy's face and description had
19:42all surfaced with the kind of precision that suggested someone very organized had done
19:46the releasing.
19:47Adrian's years of carefully maintained reputation collapsed in a single day.
19:52Within the hot clan, doors that had been open quietly shut.
19:55Victoria sent a letter.
19:57It said I'd be divorced within the year.
19:59And when I was out on the street, I shouldn't come crawling to her.
20:03I set it down on the corner of the desk.
20:06Ivy mentioned, almost as an aside, that Victoria had been passing out in bed.
20:11That several doctors had told the serpent in plain terms that they needed to stop.
20:17That neither of them had listened.
20:20Victoria was swallowing expensive tonics by the handful just to keep upright, while the
20:26serpent was looking sharper and more energetic every week.
20:30His abilities growing stronger.
20:33I'd figured this out in my past life.
20:35Stumbled onto it late.
20:36The serpent clan could only train and advance if the physical appetite was fed.
20:42Without that release, their cultivation stalled.
20:46With it, they drained whoever was closest to them.
20:49In that life, when I finally understood, I'd spent a sleepless night deciding what to do.
20:55And then I'd done the only thing that made sense.
20:58I found a doctor, confirmed it wouldn't block his ability to train,
21:02and introduced something into a gift from one of my sisters-in-law.
21:07A substance that made him permanently unable to function that way.
21:11He found out, eventually.
21:13I cried until I couldn't breathe, and told him that sister-in-law had been plotting against
21:19him for months.
21:20That she'd wanted to destroy him.
21:22That I'd only just discovered it myself.
21:25He checked.
21:26Everything I said was true.
21:28Because I had made sure it would be true.
21:31After that, he dismissed the kept women, stopped visiting other beds, and trained with a focus
21:37he hadn't had before.
21:39He treated me like something worth keeping.
21:42Victoria didn't have that knowledge.
21:45She'd decided the serpent was simply devoted to her.
21:48And she'd locked herself inside that story.
21:51I wondered how much longer her body could hold.
21:54Adrian's voice came through the door, strained and urgent.
21:56Madam, please.
21:59You have to believe me.
22:01That boy has nothing to do with me.
22:04Ivy opened her mouth.
22:05I let her go.
22:06She told him exactly what she thought of him, in considerable detail, for several minutes.
22:12He didn't fight back.
22:13He knew he had no ground to stand on.
22:15When she finally ran out of breath, I walked out.
22:19Madam, you believe me, don't you?
22:22The matriarch came through the courtyard gate behind him.
22:25She had her walking stick in hand.
22:27She brought it down across his back until blood showed through the fabric.
22:31Then she stopped.
22:33Her eyes were wet when she looked at me.
22:35My child, this family owes you an apology.
22:38She exhaled.
22:41I know you've been wronged.
22:43But the clan is pushing to have this one thrown out entirely, and I'm running out of ways to argue
22:48against it.
22:50Write him a letter of divorce.
22:52The Ashfords will take care of you.
22:54You have my word.
22:56I let my eyes go soft.
22:58I lowered my head and pressed one hand gently to my stomach.
23:01My voice came out barely above a whisper.
23:04But I'm carrying his child.
23:06Are you asking me to leave with a baby?
23:08Both of them went completely still.
23:12Adrian stared at my hand against my stomach.
23:14The color left his face.
23:17I'm sorry.
23:18His voice cracked.
23:19I'm so sorry.
23:21The matriarch needed a breath to decide.
23:25Get that woman and her boy off this property immediately.
23:28The Ashfords family has one mistress of this house.
23:31And the child she's carrying is the only heir I'll recognize.
23:35I turned my face into the matriarch's shoulder.
23:37And let myself cry.
23:40I thought you didn't want me anymore.
23:42None of it touched me inside.
23:45This was what had needed to happen.
23:48Adrian had just lost any path to the clan leadership through that boy.
23:52Without the matriarch's recognition, Rosalyn and her son were nothing.
23:57All the groundwork I'd laid had just closed around them like a door.
24:01In the corner where no one was looking, something in me smiled.
24:07Rosalyn and the boy stood at the estate gate for half the day.
24:10She screamed every promise Adrian had made.
24:13The people passing stopped and listened with wide eyes.
24:17The last of Adrian's golden reputation crumbled in real time.
24:23The story that came out of it, somehow, was that the new Mrs. Ashford had handled everything with grace.
24:30Victoria had come by to watch.
24:32She was there at the gate when it happened.
24:34She drifted into the main hall afterward, looking like she'd forgotten how to arrange her face.
24:40I was eating the pastries Adrian had walked three streets to find for me.
24:46What brings you all the way here in person?
24:49She was tired.
24:50The brightness she'd walked in with last time was gone.
24:54Her smile, when she tried it, didn't work properly.
24:58How did you do it?
25:00I smiled and touched my stomach.
25:03When you have something better, why would you settle?
25:07She understood immediately.
25:09Her eyes dropped to my hand.
25:11She went very still.
25:13Then the stillness broke, and what came out was pure envy.
25:18You're just lucky.
25:20Everything always falls into place for you.
25:22The smile left my face.
25:24I set down my tea.
25:26Lucky.
25:26My birth mother died in front of me.
25:29I spent years in this house as furniture, useful only when needed and invisible the rest of the time.
25:36Every gain I'd made in my past life, and this one, had been mapped out, move by move,
25:42late at night, alone.
25:45Lucky wasn't the word.
25:48I hear things haven't been going so well for you.
25:50You look thin.
25:52She shot to her feet.
25:54I'm perfectly fine.
25:55My husband comes only to my room.
25:57He dismissed all the others.
25:59I run my own household.
26:00No one dares touch me.
26:02I let myself laugh.
26:04She heard it for what it was, and it hit her somewhere deep, because she spun around and walked out
26:10without another word.
26:12The serpent had dismissed those women because he was afraid of being found out, not because he felt anything.
26:19His visits to her room were maintenance, nothing more.
26:23The more she gave, the more he took.
26:26Her body was already paying the bill.
26:29In the end, she'd believed what she'd wanted to believe.
26:33I didn't know how much longer she had.
26:36The pregnancy was easier than I'd expected.
26:39The baby was cooperative, which gave me room to keep running the shops and managing the estate.
26:43Adrian hovered constantly, asking after every small discomfort, following me from room to room.
26:50I found it exhausting and started leaving the estate to get away from him.
26:53It was on one of those outings that I heard Victoria had miscarried.
26:57I didn't know she'd been pregnant.
26:58I went to see her myself.
26:59I regretted it the moment I stepped into her room.
27:02The smell hit first.
27:03Powder, sweet and thick.
27:05And beneath it, something rotten.
27:07Something that didn't belong in a living body.
27:10The doctor stood to one side, with the face of a man who had stopped expecting to be listened to.
27:15I told you both repeatedly.
27:17No more.
27:18Why won't you listen?
27:20The serpent's expression was distant.
27:21He made a soft sound of dismissal and walked out.
27:24Victoria coughed.
27:26Hard, wracking coughs.
27:28The kind that bent her forward.
27:29She'd gone skeletal.
27:31Her skin, the color of old paper.
27:33She looked up at me.
27:34Even like this, she squared her jaw.
27:37Happy now?
27:37Lady Hargrove rushed in from the doorway before I could answer.
27:40She was the only person in the room who was genuinely frightened for Victoria.
27:45Who wanted to take her home and hold her.
27:47No, I'm not going back.
27:50I'm fine here.
27:52Why would I go back?
27:53Her voice climbed, sharpened.
27:56And then, something changed in my body.
27:58I grabbed Ivy's wrist.
28:00The doctor had said she wasn't far enough along.
28:03There shouldn't have been a reaction this sudden, this strong.
28:07I stopped thinking about Victoria and let Ivy steer me out.
28:10The Ashford midwife was already prepared.
28:13The doctor arrived within minutes of being called.
28:15Outside the delivery room, I could hear the matriarch and Adrian talking in short, urgent sentences.
28:21I was soaked through, Ivy's hand almost breaking in mine.
28:25If something goes wrong, save me.
28:28If I didn't survive this, Adrian would bring Rosalind's boy back.
28:32And whatever happened to my child without me here to stand between them, I didn't want to imagine.
28:37I had to stay.
28:38The pain came in waves and then in walls.
28:42Then a cry split the room and I went under completely.
28:45When I opened my eyes, there was a small, warm weight on the bed beside me.
28:49Ivy was kneeling, smiling so wide it looked like it hurt.
28:53Congratulations, ma'am.
28:55It's a girl.
28:56I stared at her for a long time.
28:58Then I reached out very carefully and poked her cheek with one finger.
29:03She woke up.
29:04She didn't cry.
29:05She just looked at me and smiled.
29:07Something in my chest came loose.
29:09I closed my hand around her tiny fingers.
29:12From today, she was the Ashford heir.
29:15And I was going to make sure she lived her life on her own terms.
29:19Not mine.
29:20Not anyone else's.
29:22Adrian was happy about the baby.
29:23And also a little lost.
29:25The way men get when reality lands differently than they'd planned.
29:29He circled around the subject for weeks before finally floating the idea of trying again in a few years.
29:34A son, he meant, to carry the Ashford name.
29:38I told him no without softening it.
29:40The matriarch promised me, if you'd like to revisit that conversation, go talk to her.
29:45He didn't.
29:45He went back to making faces at our daughter instead.
29:48After my recovery, I finally turned my attention to why the birth had come early.
29:52The doctor could only tell me that something sharp and chemical had triggered it.
29:55He couldn't identify this specific substance.
29:58I thought about Victoria's room.
29:59The smell that had sat in the back of my throat.
30:01Ivy came back from asking questions with her face flushed red.
30:05Mom, Rosaline has been meeting with Miss Victoria, the place she's been living since she left here.
30:10And Miss Victoria arranged it.
30:12Two women with nothing to lose and the same target.
30:15If I'd lost the baby, Rosaline's boy would have been the only option left.
30:19She'd have been back through the gate within the week.
30:21But I'd learned every corner of this estate before the baby came.
30:24The staff here were mine in the way that mattered.
30:26They were careful, attentive, loyal enough when loyalty was earned.
30:30Nothing had reached me that shouldn't have.
30:31Has Adrian had any contact with them since they left?
30:34Once, right after they were removed, he went to see them.
30:37They had a fight.
30:38He hasn't been back.
30:39He's cut the boy off too.
30:40Good.
30:41I exhaled.
30:42He's finally reading the room.
30:44And my half-sister, lately?
30:46Ivy's voice took on a certain quality.
30:48She's determined, I'll give her that.
30:49Her body is in the state it's in and she's still having people in,
30:52still calling doctors, trying to keep going.
30:54I sighed.
30:55She was stubborn to the point of self-destruction.
30:57She always had been.
30:58Life in the Ashford estate settled into something close to peace.
31:01The baby's name was Sarah.
31:03The matriarch chose it herself.
31:04And she announced formally in front of the clan that Sarah Ashford would be the next family head.
31:09Some members objected.
31:11Lord Ashford Sr. shut them down in four sentences and didn't look up from his tea.
31:14Adrian sulked quietly about it for a while, then adjusted.
31:17He spent his mornings making Sarah laugh and telling her she'd better remember who her father was when she was
31:23running things.
31:24It might have stayed that way indefinitely.
31:26Then one of my shop managers came in with a report.
31:29He could barely get through it without going red in the face.
31:33Victoria had purchased something from one of our suppliers.
31:36A particular kind of compound.
31:38When I pressed for details, the man turned the color of a peony and started examining the floor.
31:44I understood.
31:45Victoria was pregnant again.
31:47She announced it with a dinner party.
31:49The invitation arrived on my desk.
31:51Ivy told me not to go.
31:52Why wouldn't I?
31:54Running away was never my style.
31:56The party drew the wives of every major shifter clan.
31:59They found me within minutes of arriving and pulled me into a circle of warm, elaborate compliments.
32:06Victoria's face went through several difficult stages before she managed to control it.
32:10She breathed in, breathed out, and crossed the room to me.
32:14The smile I gave her was direct and had teeth.
32:17Look at you.
32:18Jealous?
32:19Her composure buckled.
32:21She turned and walked away in fast, rigid steps.
32:24I finished my drink.
32:26My eyes drifted to the maid standing just behind her.
32:29I smiled to myself, said something low to Ivy, and watched her slip away through the crowd.
32:34Later, a group of us walked out to the back garden.
32:37We heard it before we saw it.
32:38There, half hidden behind a stone wall, the serpent was pressed against a serving girl.
32:43Unhurried, as if he'd forgotten, or didn't care, that there were guests 20 feet away.
32:49When we got close enough, he still didn't stop.
32:52One of the wives sucked in a sharp breath.
32:54Isn't that the woman who was thrown out of the Ashford Palace?
32:57Every head turned toward me.
32:59Someone clicked her tongue.
33:00Honestly, and that boy?
33:02Who even knows?
33:03Victoria came through the garden gate with her attendants, reached the two of them, and wrenched them apart with shaking
33:09hands.
33:10How dare you?
33:12She hit him.
33:13He looked at her the way you look at something mildly inconvenient.
33:15The smear of lip color still on his jaw.
33:18You can't keep up.
33:19I'm not going to starve because of that.
33:21Don't make a scene.
33:22He shoved her back, not gently, then curved a protective arm around Rosalyn as they retreated through the gate.
33:28Victoria hit the ground.
33:30Red bloomed beneath her.
33:31She stopped being a person for a moment.
33:33She curled into herself and started murmuring over and over.
33:38Even again?
33:40Why is it always like this?
33:42She tried to crawl toward me, hands reaching.
33:45Adrian came through the gate behind her and kicked her back before she could reach me.
33:49Not carefully.
33:50The gathered wives had lost their appetite for the evening.
33:53They called for their maids and started for the carriages.
33:56After that, I never saw Victoria again.
33:58Three days later, Ivy came to me with her jaw set tight.
34:01Ma'am, Rosalyn is back.
34:03I looked up from my ledger.
34:05Where?
34:05At the gate.
34:06She says she has information about the compound used before your delivery.
34:10She's saying she wants to bargain.
34:11I set down my pen.
34:13Is Adrian home?
34:14In the east courtyard with the clan elders.
34:16The succession discussion ran long.
34:18Good. I needed to handle this myself first.
34:20I put on my outer robe and walked to the gate, unhurried.
34:23Rosalyn looked smaller than I remembered.
34:25Her clothes were decent, but worn at the hem.
34:27I can give you proof.
34:29The woman who sourced the compound, the transaction record, everything.
34:32And what do you want in return?
34:34My son, just recognition.
34:36He has abilities. He deserves to be trained.
34:39I'm not asking for anything else.
34:40I studied her for a long moment.
34:42You came to me with this.
34:44Not to Adrian.
34:46She didn't answer.
34:47That was answer enough.
34:48She knew that door was closed.
34:50She'd come to the one person with actual authority over this gate.
34:53Leave the documents with my servant.
34:54I'll review them.
34:56And my son.
34:57I said I'll review them.
34:58I turned and walked back inside.
35:00The documents were thorough.
35:01Ivy sat across from me, reading carefully.
35:03This is enough to bring for the clan council.
35:05Attempted harm to an heir.
35:07That's not a minor offense.
35:08No.
35:09I folded the document closed.
35:10We wait.
35:11Ivy looked up.
35:12Victoria is already broken.
35:14Filing this now does nothing except make me look like I'm kicking someone already on the ground.
35:18That afternoon, Adrian walked into my room with a careful expression.
35:21The clan elders want to discuss Sarah's succession formally.
35:25Some of them are pushing back.
35:26On what grounds?
35:27She's a girl.
35:28And young.
35:29They're suggesting we revisit the matter when she's older.
35:31How much older?
35:32Old enough to be replaced by a son.
35:34I told them I had no plans for a son.
35:36They didn't believe me.
35:37I turned back to the window.
35:38Then we give them something they can't argue with.
35:41I sent for the clan's senior historian the next morning.
35:44He arrived in the afternoon.
35:45An elderly man with excellent posture.
35:48I need to understand the succession law in full.
35:50Every claw love.
35:52Every exception.
35:53Every precedent.
35:54That evening, I walked into the east courtyard,
35:56where Adrian was running forms with Sarah propped against the practice post.
36:00He stopped when he saw my face.
36:02What did you find?
36:04The matriarch conformally vest the succession in Sarah before she reaches training age.
36:08The elders can object,
36:10but they can't overturn a formal vesting by the sitting matriarch.
36:14Adrian was quiet for a moment.
36:15She'll do it.
36:15If I ask her.
36:17He picked Sarah up.
36:18She grabbed his ear.
36:19Dad?
36:20She said clearly.
36:20We both went still.
36:21It was her first word.
36:23Did she just...
36:24Yes.
36:25She said my name first.
36:27Don't make it a competition.
36:28Too late.
36:29The elders made their move at the monthly clan meeting.
36:32Elder Crane stood first.
36:33The succession of Sarah Ashfield was announced prematurely.
36:36The child has not yet demonstrated ability.
36:39We move to defer the designation until she reaches the age of eight.
36:43Several others nodded.
36:44Matriarch said firmly.
36:45No.
36:46The designation stands.
36:47I have already submitted the formal vesting to the clan record.
36:51She set a sealed document on the table.
36:53It was received and witnessed this morning.
36:55Next day, I was at the market with Ivy, and someone grabbed my sleeve.
36:58I turned.
36:58It's Victoria.
36:59She looked nothing like herself.
37:00Her hair was loose.
37:02Her eyes red-rimmed.
37:03You have to help me.
37:05He's gonna kill me.
37:06I know he is.
37:07He said if I left again, he'd...
37:09Let go of me.
37:09She didn't.
37:10Her grip tightened.
37:11I have nowhere to go.
37:13Mother can't help me.
37:14She's already tried.
37:16He threw her out.
37:17And I can't...
37:18I can't go back there.
37:20I can't...
37:20Victoria.
37:21You're making a scene.
37:24Please.
37:24She said, very quietly this time, a desperate Victoria, loose in public, was exactly the
37:29kind of loose end someone like Crane would find a use for.
37:32Come with me.
37:32Don't speak.
37:33Don't draw any more attention.
37:35I took her back to the estate.
37:36I sat Victoria in the outer garden with tea and told her to stay put.
37:40She did.
37:41Adrian found me in the corridor.
37:43Tell me you didn't bring her inside.
37:45Outer garden.
37:46Supervised.
37:47She's not a threat today.
37:48If I leave her in the street, she'll become someone else's tool.
37:51He looked at me steadily.
37:53What about Sarah?
37:54Sarah is in the training hall with two senior clan guards and her father, who was just
37:59here, which means you left her there alone.
38:02He turned around immediately and went back.
38:04I returned to the garden.
38:05Victoria murmured like a crazy person.
38:08The serpent is going to kill me.
38:10He's run out of use for me.
38:11I sat down across from her.
38:13What do you want?
38:14I need to go somewhere he can't reach me.
38:16I won't come near you or the girl again.
38:18In Last Life, she had been cruel to me in every small way she could manage.
38:22In this life, she had tried to take my child from me before she was even born.
38:26I can't let anything go wrong again.
38:28I'll arrange a departure.
38:30Documents, escort, a new name.
38:32You will leave before the week is out.
38:33You will not contact anyone in this city.
38:35You will not come back.
38:36She froze, not expecting I would help her so easily.
38:39Why?
38:40She asked.
38:40Because it costs me nothing.
38:42And it costs you everything to own me.
38:44Before she stepped into the carriage, she turned back.
38:47Crane paid the serpent to keep me close to you.
38:49I don't know what he was planning, but I thought you should know.
38:52I'm not telling you for your sake.
38:53I just want him to lose something too.
38:55The carriage door closed.
38:57I brought her words to Adrian.
38:58He was in the middle of teaching Sarah how to hold her stance.
39:00She kept toppling sideways and laughing about it, which was not making him a more effective
39:05instructor.
39:05Crane, I suspected him.
39:08You didn't say anything.
39:10I was waiting for confirmation.
39:12Now I have it.
39:13Sarah pulled on his sleeve.
39:14Again, Dad.
39:15In a moment.
39:16Now, Dad.
39:17He crouched down to Sarah's level.
39:19If you hold the stance for ten full breaths, we do it again.
39:23She squared up with tremendous seriousness.
39:25She made it to seven before she started giggling.
39:28Adrian caught her when she fell over.
39:29I want to deal with Crane openly, in front of the full clan.
39:33That's a risk.
39:34I have the documents from Rosany.
39:36The succession vesting.
39:38Victoria's testimony in writing.
39:40Witness before she left.
39:42If I lay it all at once, there's no recovery from it.
39:45And the serpent?
39:46That I'll leave to the serpent clan's own politics.
39:49They'll handle it faster than we could.
39:51At the formal clan gathering, Elder Crane held high a document.
39:54I have evidence of financial misconduct within the Ashfield estate accounts, dating back to the very year the current mistress
40:01arrived.
40:02May I see the document?
40:04He handed it over with confidence.
40:06I read it, looked up.
40:07Those discrepancies were identified, documented, and corrected in the first month after I took over management.
40:13The shop manage responsible was dismassed.
40:16I turned to the matriarch.
40:17I believe you have the original corrective record in the household archive.
40:21The matriarch nodded.
40:22Crane's composure cracked.
40:23Furthermore, I withdrew a folded document.
40:26I have a record here of payments made from Elder Crane's personal accounts to a third party.
40:31That third party is the serpent clan's finance manager.
40:35The same serpent clan that housed Victoria, the woman who attempted to harm the Ashfield heir before her birth.
40:41The hall erupted.
40:43Crane sat down.
40:44He didn't speak again.
40:45After that day, neither did anyone else bother to listen when he tried.
40:48That evening, the estate was quiet.
40:50Word had come earlier that day.
40:51Victoria had killed the serpent.
40:53He'd tracked her down despite everything, and she'd fought back.
40:56The serpent clan handled it themselves.
40:57Trial, verdict, exile to somewhere far enough that no one would hear from her again.
41:01I felt nothing.
41:02The only people I cared about were already with me.
41:05Sarah had fallen asleep in the courtyard after dinner, still wearing the small practice gloves Adrian had fitted to her
41:09hands.
41:10He carried her inside without waking her.
41:11He laid her down, and then he came out and stood beside me.
41:14She held the starts for eleven breaths today, while you were with the elders.
41:18I counted.
41:19I know.
41:20She told me herself.
41:21Twice.
41:23Crane will resign by morning.
41:25The elders talked after you left.
41:26Even the ones who were supporting him have pulled back.
41:28Good.
41:29When did you know?
41:30About Crane?
41:31How long had you known?
41:32Long enough.
41:33You waited.
41:34Timing is everything.
41:36He exhaled slowly.
41:37Not quite a laugh.
41:38You're terrifying, you know that?
41:40You married me.
41:41I know.
41:42I'm starting to think that was the smartest thing I ever did.
41:45He was watching Sarah through the doorway.
41:47She's going to be extraordinary.
41:49I turned back to the doorway.
41:50Sarah stirred in her sleep and smiled at something in her dream.
41:54I thought of my mother's voice, barely audible, telling me to keep going.
41:58I had.
41:59This was what keeping going looked like.
42:01I was trying to keep going.
42:02I was trying to keep going.
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