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๐ฅ Prepare for the ultimate short drama addiction! Packed with breathless romance, shocking betrayals, and massive plot twists that will keep you hooked until the very last second. ๐๐๐ถ๏ธ
๐ Hit FOLLOW now for daily addictive mini-series! ๐
#shortdrama #miniseries #drama #romance #betrayal #mafia #shortfilm
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Short filmTranscript
00:012 a.m. I'm crouched outside a bar, chain-smoking. Makeup wrecked. Heels kicked off. Whiskey down the front of
00:08my dress. I look like a woman whose life just blew up in her face. That's because it did.
00:15A man drops onto the curb beside me. Cheap suit. Breath that could peel paint off a wall.
00:21You look stressed, sweetheart.
00:23Move.
00:24I've got something cheap. Won't bleed much on your carpet.
00:27I almost stand up to knock his teeth in.
00:29Tonight's auction left over. Nobody bid on him. We torch him at sunrise.
00:33Here's how it works in this country. Orc auctions are the biggest industry on the East Coast.
00:37The pretty ones go for millions. The ugly ones go to labor camps. The leftovers get burned.
00:42And tonight, I happen to need something to burn.
00:45What's wrong with him?
00:47Faster if I tell you what's right. Mongrel, half-breed, one-eyed dead, tusk-snap, big bastard, tank of a
00:53body, takes a hit, keeps coming.
00:55Show me.
01:01I forget how to breathe.
01:03Seven foot two. Ash-gray skin. Scar tissue running from his hairline down to his collar. The left side of
01:09his face is wrecked. A white scar cuts him from temple to jaw. That eye is dead. Cloudy. Half-blind.
01:15Left tusk snapped in half. The right one files sharp. His horn broken clean at the tip. Shoulders so wide
01:23they nearly scrape both walls of the alley.
01:25The traitor kicks the back of his knee. Look at that face, sweetheart. Do whatever you want to. You can't
01:31ruin what's already ruined.
02:01The orc lifts his head.
02:02Breakfast alone. Eighteen months of that. You getting this? Me, Sienna Quinn. Heiress to the biggest fortune in New York.
02:1023 years old. Two million dollars I paid for a husband who thinks I smell bad. How much to keep
02:18him?
02:21You don't keep a mongrel. You rent him for an hour till you...
02:27Number.
02:28Sixty grand.
02:30Five.
02:31Lady, are you out of your...
02:32Five. Cash. Right now. Or I call my father. He sits on the welfare bureau board. He'd love to hear
02:38what your operation moves through this alley.
02:42Five. Deal.
02:44Deal.
02:44I peel off the bills. The chain drops into Pine Palm. Cold. Heavier than I expected. The orc tilts his
02:54head. When he speaks, his voice comes out low and rough.
02:59If you wanted to hurt something pretty, you should have walked past me.
03:04I don't want to hurt anything.
03:06Then why?
03:08I look up at his face. Because tonight, the world's most beautiful orc is at home. He won't look me
03:16in the eye. And this half-blind mongrel just did.
03:19I tug the chain. Gentle. Just once. Because nobody else would. He follows me out of the alley.
03:34The Uber driver locks every door the second Lysander folds in. He has to fold himself sideways to fit.
03:41I haven't been this close to another body in a long time.
03:45What's your name?
03:47Lysander.
03:48My mother named me Lysander.
03:50The auction tag calls me Mongrel 72.
03:5471 before him.
03:55All burned.
03:57I'm at Siena.
03:59I'm not calling you a number.
04:01He doesn't say thank you.
04:03He doesn't believe me yet.
04:05That's fine.
04:06He will.
04:07The plaza.
04:08Penthouse.
04:10I slip the bellman 300 bucks to wipe the security footage.
04:14He doesn't ask why.
04:16That's the thing about money.
04:17The right amount makes problems vanish.
04:20In the suite, Lysander has to duck to clear the doorway.
04:23His broken horn scrapes plaster off the ceiling.
04:26Sit.
04:27The couch will hold you.
04:30I don't sit on furniture.
04:32You do now.
04:34The frame groans under him.
04:35He puts his hands flat on his knees.
04:38Palms down.
04:39Fingers spread.
04:40The pose you train an animal to hold.
04:42Somebody taught him that.
04:43I'll deal with that later.
04:48Don't.
04:49It's just water.
04:51That side of my face is dead, Siena.
04:53My body remembers the hand.
04:55Not what's in it.
04:59Eighteen months in a marriage with no contact.
05:02Two hours in a hotel room with a stranger who flinches when I try.
05:06God, we're a pair.
05:08Tell me who took the eye.
05:11Owner's son.
05:12He got his first hunting knife for his 12th birthday.
05:15His father told him to practice on something that didn't matter.
05:19I pick up his hand.
05:21I turn it over.
05:22The inside of his wrist is covered in burn scars.
05:25Old slave casels over older slave casels.
05:28Layers of them.
05:29I press my mouth to the inside of his wrist.
05:32He stops breathing.
05:36Don't be soft with me, Aunt Siena.
05:40I'll break.
05:42Then break.
05:45He drops his forehead into my shoulder.
05:48He shakes against me.
05:49I put my hand on the back of his head.
05:52His hair is rough.
05:54Not like Sutherland's silk in Conditioner Mane.
05:56But somehow it makes me feel safer than Sutherland ever did.
06:02My phone buzzes on the nightstand.
06:05Sully is losing it.
06:06He smells another orc on you.
06:08He's pacing the foyer.
06:09Tusks won't retract.
06:11Where are you?
06:12I read it twice.
06:13Then I smile.
06:15First real smile in 18 months.
06:18You have to understand my life.
06:20I was five years old when somebody snatched me off a sidewalk in Queens.
06:25My parents looked for me for one year.
06:28Then they gave up.
06:29And adopted a baby girl from the system.
06:31They named her Cora.
06:33She got 18 years of birthday parties, ballet lessons, piano recitals, family vacations.
06:39I got 18 years of foster homes, a juvie cell at 11, a girl gang in Bushwick at 14, and
06:45a DNA test at 23 that matched me to the Queens.
06:48When I walked through their door at 23, my little sister was 17.
06:53She'd been the only daughter her entire life.
06:55She screamed.
06:56She broke a vase.
06:58She threw a butter knife at my head and missed by an inch.
07:01Get out of my house, you trash!
07:04My mother held her and stroked her hair.
07:07Your sister's been spoiled.
07:08Try to be patient, sweetheart.
07:09That was the day I learned the rules of this family.
07:12I keep my mouth shut about Bushwick.
07:14I keep my mouth shut about the pickpocketing.
07:16I smile pretty at brunch.
07:18I cry on cue when the inheritance lawyer drops by.
07:21The allowance keeps showing up.
07:22Every birthday, my parents buy me something extravagance, paying down the guilt of 18 years they spent not looking hard
07:28enough.
07:28On my 22nd, they bought me Sullivan, $2 million pure-blood orc, show-quality bloodline, brushed coat, polished tusks.
07:36Your sister's so quiet, sweetheart.
07:39A companion orc would help her come out of her shell.
07:43Cora screamed for three days.
07:46Then she ran away with him for ten.
07:49She brought him back skin and bones.
07:51My mother slapped her across the face for the first time in her life.
07:54And from that day forward, Sullivan only responded to one set of footspets in the hallway.
07:59Hers.
08:00He'd lived ten days as her stray.
08:03He decided she was his real owner.
08:05I was just the woman whose name was on the paperwork.
08:0818 months of eating breakfast alone in a house with five other people in it.
08:13I look down at the phone.
08:16Tell him to get used to it.
08:18I press end.
08:20I put both my hands on it lice of his face.
08:22I make him look at me.
08:25You're staying with me.
08:27You don't know what you just bought.
08:30Then tell me in the morning.
08:31He pulls me against his chest.
08:34His arm is bigger around than my waist.
08:37His heartbeat is slow and heavy under my ear.
08:40He's asleep in three minutes.
08:42I lie in the dark, listening to him breathe.
08:45In 18 months, my pure-blood husband has never once fallen asleep in the same room as me.
08:49The mongrel I bought for five grand has been mined for two hours and he's already unconscious on my chest.
08:55Best money I've ever spent.
08:58I wake up because there's a hand around my throat.
09:01His whole palm covers my neck.
09:04His thumb sits on my pulse.
09:06He isn't squeezing.
09:07He's staring at the door.
09:08This isn't a threat.
09:10He's checking the room.
09:11I keep my voice low.
09:13Talk to me.
09:14What's at the door?
09:15Somebody's in the hallway.
09:16Get behind me.
09:17He's off the bed in one movement.
09:19300 pounds of orc and not a sound on the carpet.
09:22He puts his eye to the peephole.
09:25His shoulders drop.
09:27Room service.
09:28He opens the door.
09:29The bellboy on the other side sees seven feet of scarred mongrel filling the frame and drops the tray.
09:35Lysander catches it before it hits the carpet.
09:37He closes the door.
09:39He stands with his back to me.
09:43Send me back to the traitor at sunrise.
09:45What?
09:46I sit up in bed.
09:47He keeps the 5,000.
09:48He puts me down anyway.
09:50You walk away clean.
09:51Lysander.
09:52Your pure blood forgives you.
09:54Your family forgives you.
09:56The story is, you got drunk.
09:58You did something stupid.
09:59You came home.
10:00End of story.
10:01I get out of bed.
10:03I cross the carpet barefoot.
10:06I stand on my toes to put my palm flat against his sternum.
10:10His heart is jackrabbiting under my hand.
10:13He's terrified.
10:15Afraid last night was a lie.
10:17Did you sleep tonight?
10:21Yes.
10:22Three hours.
10:24How long since you slept three hours in a row before that?
10:28His mouth opens.
10:29He doesn't have an answer.
10:33I take a breath.
10:34I've been married for 18 months to the most beautiful orc in the city.
10:38He looks at me.
10:39He won't enter my bedroom.
10:40He won't touch my hand at dinner.
10:42He sleeps in a different wing because my perfume gives him a headache.
10:46He brushes my stepsister's hair every morning and pretends I'm not at the table.
10:50I curl my fingers in the fabric of his shirt.
10:53I've been invisible in my own house for 18 months.
10:57He looks at me.
11:00Tonight, you saw me first.
11:02I look up.
11:03You fell asleep on my chest in three minutes.
11:06Do you understand what that did to me?
11:08I'm not sending you back.
11:10He stares down at me.
11:12His eyes are wet.
11:14You shouldn't love a thing like me.
11:16Then we have a problem.
11:18Because I think I already do.
11:20I take his hand.
11:21I lead him back to the bed.
11:22Lay down.
11:23You haven't slept in three days.
11:25He lays down.
11:27I curl on his chest.
11:28My ear is right over his heart.
11:31Why did you really put your hand on my throat earlier?
11:37Habit.
11:38Mongrels reach for the threat first, always.
11:42You weren't threatening me.
11:44You were guarding me.
11:46He almost laughs.
11:47He tips my chin up with one knuckle.
11:49His eye catches the light.
11:51Sullivan never touched you, did he?
11:56He never sat on the same couch as me.
11:59Then I'm going to be the first thing on your skin.
12:02He leans down.
12:04He kisses me.
12:06Hard.
12:08The broken tusk drags my lower lip open.
12:11He licks the cut.
12:13I moan into his mouth.
12:15He grabs both my wrists in one hand and pins them above my head.
12:19Other hand grips my jaw.
12:22Open.
12:24I open.
12:25His tongue is in my mouth.
12:26His knee shoves my thighs apart.
12:28He drops his weight on me.
12:30The bed dips.
12:31The frame groans.
12:33He's hard.
12:34I feel him against my hip.
12:36Through the fabric.
12:37Heavy.
12:37Thick.
12:38Look at you.
12:40Tiny thing.
12:41Already shaking for me.
12:44He shoves my nightgown up to my waist.
12:48One hand with the other still pinning my wrists.
12:51His palm slides down between my things.
12:56Already wet.
12:58Lysianna.
12:59Say please.
13:01I gasp.
13:03Say it, Sienna.
13:06Please.
13:09His fingers work into me.
13:11Two at once.
13:13Thick.
13:14Rough.
13:15He's watching my face.
13:17That's it.
13:18There she is.
13:19He keeps going till I'm shaking under him.
13:22No.
13:23Don't.
13:23Don't.
13:24Then he stops.
13:26Hush.
13:27I want you on my tongue first.
13:33He drops down the bed.
13:36Shoulders shove my thighs wider.
13:38He hooks both my knees over his shoulders.
13:41His mouth goes to me.
13:42The intact tusk drags along my inner thigh.
13:45The sharp one.
13:47Just enough pressure to mark.
13:49I cry out.
13:50He eats me till my hands tear the sheets.
13:53Till my hips lift off the bed for him.
13:55He holds me down with one forearm across my stomach.
13:59When I come, he is watching me the whole time.
14:02He climbs back up me.
14:03His mouth is wet.
14:05He kisses me with it.
14:07Let's me taste myself.
14:09Now look at me when I take you.
14:11He pushes in.
14:13Slow.
14:14So slow.
14:15I feel every inch.
14:17I'm small under him.
14:18He's huge.
14:19He stretches me till my eyes go wet.
14:22He stops halfway.
14:24Breathe.
14:27He pushes the rest of the way in.
14:29I gasp his name.
14:31He swallows it.
14:32He starts to move.
14:34Deep.
14:35Hard.
14:36Steady.
14:36Each thrust pushes me up the mattress.
14:39His free hand pulls me back down onto him.
14:41He says it on every stroke.
14:44I sob it back.
14:45Mine.
14:48Fuck me harder, Lysenar.
14:50His good eye goes black.
14:52He bites the bond spot right where my neck meets my shoulder.
14:57My whole spine snaps tight.
14:59My hands fist in the sheets.
15:01I cry out into his hair.
15:02He holds me through it.
15:04He licks the blood off his lip.
15:06Then he licks the bite.
15:08Mine.
15:09Say it back.
15:10Yours.
15:11Again.
15:12Yours, Lysenar.
15:14He kisses me hard.
15:16I taste my own blood in his mouth and I don't care.
15:20It's done.
15:20You can't undo it.
15:22You're mine forever.
15:24Nobody is taking you from me.
15:27Good.
15:30I wake up to sunlight on his chest.
15:32He has been awake for a while.
15:34He is staring at the ceiling.
15:36His hand sits on my hip.
15:38He is afraid to move it.
15:42How long have you been up?
15:44Two hours.
15:45Why didn't you wake me?
15:47You were sleeping on me.
15:48I wasn't going to end that.
15:50The bite on my neck pulses with every heartbeat.
15:54Let me see.
15:55He sees me wince and sits up.
15:57He turns my head gently.
15:59His thumb traces around the mark.
16:01Never on it.
16:03It's scarred clean.
16:05It will show for the rest of your life.
16:08That's what I wanted.
16:10He studies me for a moment.
16:12You keep saying things like that.
16:14The words don't seem to cost you anything.
16:17They don't.
16:18They will.
16:20Your father will see the mark.
16:22Everyone you grew up around will see what bit you.
16:25I climb into his lap.
16:27I put his hand flat on my throat, over the bite.
16:31Then they see it.
16:33He shakes his head once.
16:35Sienna, take it off.
16:37I'll buy you a scarf downstairs.
16:38Wear it until the bruise fades.
16:40Walk back into that house clean.
16:42Tell them I was a bad dream.
16:44I pull back to look at him.
16:46You want me to hide you?
16:47I want you to survive me.
16:51Press.
16:52What?
16:52Press, Lysander.
16:54Hard enough to leave your prints next to your teeth.
16:57He doesn't press.
16:58I can't.
16:59Then stop telling me to take you off.
17:02His hands shake.
17:05He closes his eyes.
17:07He drops his forehead onto my collarbone.
17:09I feel him breathe out for the first time since he woke up.
17:13I order room service.
17:15Two of everything.
17:17Eat.
17:18Start with the eggs.
17:21He picks up a fork.
17:23He puts it back down.
17:24He picks up a piece of bacon with his fingers.
17:27He looks up.
17:28Waiting for me to correct him.
17:30I pick up my own piece with my fingers too.
17:33He almost smiles.
17:35My phone lights up on the carpet.
17:37A cell he shifted.
17:39Tusts won't be trapped.
17:40Dad locked him in the wine cellar.
17:42Mom is crying.
17:44Where are you?
17:45Lysander reads it over my shoulder.
17:47His hand doesn't leave my throat.
17:51Get dressed.
17:52We're going home.
17:56The estate gates are open.
17:58The guard is at his post.
18:00He doesn't look at us.
18:01Stay outside, Marco.
18:03Whatever you hear, stay outside.
18:05He looks relieved and nods.
18:07I walk up the gravel drive with At Lysander a step behind me.
18:11He doesn't speak.
18:13He is scanning every window.
18:15He is already counting exits.
18:17The foyer is wrecked.
18:19There's glass on the marble and a console table on its side.
18:22My mother is on the stairs with mascara down her face.
18:25Sullivan has my father against the wall.
18:28Six foot ten of him with tusks fully out.
18:30My father's feet are six inches off the marble.
18:33Cora is at the top of the stairs.
18:35She has her phone up.
18:36She is filming the whole thing.
18:38I walk into the middle of the foyer.
18:41Sully, put him down.
18:42Sullivan turns slowly.
18:44He doesn't recognize me for a beat.
18:47Then he does, and his nostrils flare.
18:51You smell like him, Sienna.
18:54Let my father down.
18:55I can fix this.
18:57I can wash it off.
18:59I can mark over it.
19:00Sullivan, put him down.
19:04He drops my father.
19:05My father slides down the wall to the marble.
19:09Coughing, but alive.
19:11Sullivan crosses the foyer towards him.
19:13He stops three feet away.
19:15He cannot take the next step.
19:17Pure blood instinct won't let him cross the air between us.
19:20He has smelled the bond.
19:21He knows what it is.
19:23Lysander walks through the doorway behind him.
19:25Sullivan's whole body locks up.
19:27Lysander doesn't lift a hand.
19:28He walks to the middle of the foyer.
19:31He says four words in a language I don't know.
19:33You're a ruler.
19:35Then, Sullivan drops to both knees.
19:40His tusks retract.
19:42The black in his eyes pulls back to gold.
19:45The foyer goes dead silent.
19:47My mother gasps from the stairs.
19:49Sully.
19:51What did he just say?
19:53Lysander answers in flat English.
19:56I told him my mother's name.
19:58My father lifts his head from the marble.
20:00Who is your mother, son?
20:02Lysander looks at me first.
20:04Then at my father.
20:06Her name was Merthen of the North Forest.
20:10My father stops breathing for a beat.
20:12My father pours brandy in his studi.
20:15His hands shake.
20:16He doesn't drink any of it.
20:17Lysander stands by the door.
20:19He won't sit in this house yet.
20:20Merven of the North Forest married a human.
20:23That makes you highborn.
20:25And that makes Vark of House Drenhan your uncle.
20:28Yes.
20:29My father sets the brandy down very carefully.
20:33Sienna.
20:34Do you understand what you walked into an alley and bought?
20:37A husband.
20:38A highborn heir.
20:40There are seven of them on this coast.
20:42That sounds like my problem to handle.
20:45That is everyone's problem now.
20:46Including mine.
20:48He looks at Lysander.
20:49Why were you in that alley?
20:53My uncle put me there 15 years ago.
20:56He paid Ortloff and sons 12,000 pieces.
20:58They took my eye and snapped my tusk.
21:00They broke my horn.
21:02He didn't want anyone to buy me.
21:04No one was supposed to see whose blood I had.
21:06If I died young, my mother's lands passed to him.
21:09And you didn't die.
21:10He didn't die.
21:11He went through 12 cages.
21:13He walked out of an alley last night.
21:16He had my chain in his hand.
21:18My father is silent at his desk.
21:21And he bit you?
21:22After one night?
21:24Yes.
21:25Your grandmother died last month, son.
21:27Mero's mother.
21:28The estate is in probate.
21:30I don't care about the estate.
21:31You should care.
21:32The day Vec learns that Lysander is alive, he is coming through that gate.
21:36Lysander speaks from the doorway.
21:38Quiet.
21:39He already knows.
21:40He felt the bond pulse at 2am.
21:45Then he is already on a plane.
21:47How long do we have?
21:49Six hours.
21:50Maybe less.
21:51I leave my father in the study.
21:53I find Cora in my bedroom.
21:55She is on my bed.
21:56She holds a phone in one hand.
21:58She holds a paring knife in the other.
22:00The blade is pointed at her own throat.
22:03Hi sis.
22:04We need to talk.
22:08I sit down across from her.
22:11Put it down, Cora.
22:13You took Sully.
22:14He was never yours.
22:16Mom and dad bought him for you and he chose me anyway.
22:20You imprinted a 12 year old animal who was scared and confused.
22:24That's grooming.
22:26That's not love.
22:28Send your monster husband away.
22:31Send him back tonight.
22:33Or I'll do it on your bed.
22:35I lean closer.
22:36You won't.
22:39Watch me.
22:40A girl who actually wanted to die wouldn't come here.
22:43Not to her sister's bedroom.
22:45She would do it in her own room.
22:47You came here because you need an audience.
22:50She blinks at me.
22:51I'm the audience.
22:53Drop the knife.
22:54Her hand shakes.
22:55I've watched you cry on cue for 18 months.
22:59I've watched you switch the tears off the second the camera leaves.
23:04This morning you filmed dad choking against a wall.
23:08You didn't drop the phone to help him.
23:11You narrated it.
23:12Her face cracks open.
23:14A girl who films her dad choking.
23:16She doesn't slit her throat over a husband.
23:20Drop it.
23:21She drops the knife.
23:24Then she starts crying.
23:26Real crying.
23:28Not the kind I'm used to from her.
23:30I hate that you came back.
23:31I had everything.
23:33I had dad.
23:34And mom.
23:35And Sully.
23:36And this house.
23:37Then they found you.
23:39And I became the second one.
23:41You had a stolen life.
23:43It was always going to end the day they found me.
23:46Sis, please.
23:48Switzerland.
23:49Friday.
23:50Lindenburg Academy.
23:52You don't come back until you're 21.
23:55She nods at me.
23:56She doesn't bargain.
23:58I pick the knife up off the bedside.
24:01I walk out into the hall.
24:06Lysenar is in the hallway.
24:08He has heard every word through the door.
24:10You didn't have to be that hard with her.
24:12I was 17 once.
24:13Nobody was soft with me back then.
24:15She isn't broken.
24:16She is spoiled.
24:17There's a difference.
24:19You smell different right now.
24:20Just for one minute, let me hold you.
24:21He opens his arms.
24:23I walk into him.
24:24I don't cry.
24:25He holds me in the hallway.
24:27Behind him, down the corridor.
24:28My mother is standing in a doorway.
24:30She is watching us closely.
24:32She doesn't speak.
24:33She watches him put his hand on the back of my head.
24:36Then she goes back into her room and closes the door.
24:39The doorbell rings at 3 p.m.
24:42Now the Leister straightens up.
24:43The softness leaves his body fast.
24:45Who is at the door?
24:46Sienna?
24:47I'm not expecting anyone.
24:48He checks the camera in the front hall.
24:50There are three orcs on the step.
24:52They wear iron coats with full tusks and unbroken horns.
24:55My uncle's men.
24:57Six hours, you said.
25:00He was closer than I thought.
25:01He moves me behind him.
25:03He opens the door himself.
25:04The oldest of the three steps in.
25:06Six foot eleven.
25:07In a silk-lined coat.
25:08He sees at Lysander.
25:10His eyes go to the broken horn in the dead eye.
25:12They go to the snapped tusk.
25:14They go to the brand under the shirt.
25:16He smiles at him.
25:18Forgive the intrusion.
25:19I'm Lord Beck of House Drenum.
25:23I've come to collect my nephew.
25:30He's married, I tell him.
25:32To you.
25:33A human.
25:34I admire your nerve.
25:36His smile widens.
25:37But my nephew is not property you can keep.
25:40He belongs to the house until he is twenty-five.
25:43Get out of my father's house.
25:45Vark turns to At Lithlan.
25:47He says something quiet in the old language.
25:50Listener's scar twidges.
25:51What did he say?
25:52He asked if I had taught the human pet to sit yet.
25:56My father grips the hall doorway hard.
25:58Lysanar steps fully into the foyer.
26:00Uncle.
26:01You paid Orphal and us twelve thousand pieces.
26:04They put a knife in my eye when I was eight.
26:07Lysanar!
26:08You paid them to snap my tusk.
26:10To break my horn.
26:11To brawn me mongrel seventy-two.
26:13That is enough.
26:14You sold me to twelve cages over fifteen years.
26:17You're here today because Grandmother is dead.
26:20Her will makes me richer than you.
26:22Varek's smile sharpens.
26:24Your mother married beneath her.
26:25Your father was a stain on our bloodline.
26:28We did what was necessary.
26:30The three of them step toward me.
26:32Varek's hand comes up to strike.
26:34Lysander moves on him.
26:36The first hit cracks bone.
26:38The second is wetter.
26:39The third rattles the chandelier above us.
26:42My father grabs me and pulls me into the hallway.
26:44He clamps his hand over my mouth.
26:47The foyer doors swing back open.
26:49Lysanar stands in the frame.
26:51There's blood on his knuckles and a cut on his cheekbone.
26:54Three highborn Oryx lie on the marble.
26:56None of them are getting up soon.
26:57None of them are dead.
26:58My father starts to laugh.
27:00Quiet at first.
27:00Then louder.
27:01Lysanar turns to me.
27:03He looks wild.
27:04His hand is shaking hard.
27:06Take me somewhere I can put my back to a wall.
27:09I take him to my bathroom.
27:11I lock the door behind us.
27:13I sit him on the closed lid of the toilet.
27:15I turn on the hot water in the sink.
27:17He doesn't speak.
27:18He stares at the tile between his feet.
27:20His hands won't stop shaking.
27:22I run a washcloth under the tap.
27:25I wring it out.
27:26I kneel in front of him on the bath mat.
27:28Give me your hands.
27:29He gives them to me.
27:31I wash them.
27:32Knuckle by knuckle.
27:33The blood isn't his.
27:35It comes off easy.
27:36Look at me.
27:37He doesn't look up.
27:40Lysanar.
27:41Look at me.
27:42He looks at me.
27:43And then he breaks.
27:45His shoulders drop.
27:46He starts to cry.
27:48He puts his forehead against my colivone and his whole body shakes.
27:52I hold the back of his head.
27:54I let him fall apart.
27:56I was eight.
27:57I was eight years old at Sienna.
28:01I tightened my hand in his hair.
28:04They told me my mother was on her way.
28:06They told me she was coming to take me home.
28:10I sat in that room for two hours waiting for her.
28:13Then the door opened.
28:15And it wasn't her.
28:17I'm here.
28:18My uncle paid them to do it.
28:20I was eight years old in a chair.
28:22He watched the whole thing.
28:23He is making a sound now that isn't quite crying.
28:28Tonight I broke his tusk on his own floor.
28:30It didn't fix anything.
28:32I thought it would fix something.
28:35It doesn't work like that.
28:39No, it doesn't.
28:41Hey.
28:43Look at me.
28:45He looks at me again.
28:47It doesn't fix what he did to you.
28:49Nothing does.
28:50But it tells him you grew up.
28:53He sold an eight-year-old.
28:55The eight-year-old came back with a wife.
28:59I don't deserve this.
29:01You keep saying that.
29:03Because it's true.
29:04Then we have a problem.
29:06I'm not leaving you.
29:07I take his face in both my hands.
29:09I kiss the dead side first.
29:11The scarred one.
29:11Where the knife went in.
29:13He flinches the way he did with the towel last night.
29:15I do it again.
29:17Slower this time.
29:18The third time, he doesn't flinch at all.
29:21He looks at me steady.
29:22I'm going to need you for the rest of my life.
29:24I'm telling you now.
29:26You can decide before this gets worse.
29:28Already decided.
29:292 a.m. last night.
29:31Get in the bath.
29:31He gets in the bath.
29:32He doesn't fit at all.
29:34His knees come up over the rim.
29:36His broken horn taps the tile above him.
29:38He laughs at himself.
29:40The sound is short and surprised.
29:42I haven't been in a bathtub since I was a child.
29:45You're in one now.
29:47I sit on the edge in my clothes.
29:48I dip the washcloth in the water.
29:50I start at his shoulder.
29:52I work down his arm and across his chest.
29:54The brand on his ribs is the last thing I get to.
29:57The number 12 is burned into him in black ink.
29:59The brand is older than the knife scar.
30:01The skin around it is still raised after 15 years.
30:05I put my home flat on it.
30:07Tell me what this one is.
30:11Cage number.
30:12Twelfth owner.
30:14They burn the new number over the old one each time.
30:16The first six are under it.
30:18You can feel the ridges if you press.
30:21I can feel them.
30:22I do press.
30:24And the others?
30:25He starts to tell me about them.
30:27He doesn't stop for an hour.
30:30There was the owner who fed him once a week.
30:32There was the one who used him in the pit.
30:35There was the one in Maryland with the daughter.
30:37She slipped him bread under the door at night.
30:39Her father caught her doing it.
30:41He never knew what happened to the daughter after that.
30:44I listen to him.
30:45I keep the water warm.
30:47I don't cry.
30:48He doesn't need that for me.
30:49When he is done, he sits very still.
30:51Sienna.
30:53Yes?
30:55Nobody has ever asked me what they were.
30:58Nobody is ever going to skip that question again.
31:01He looks at me.
31:03He is steady for the first time all day.
31:08I want you to see the rest of them too.
31:10I help him stand.
31:11He drips water on the bath mat.
31:13I dry him with a towel I fetch twice from the closet.
31:17I find every scar he tells me to find.
31:20Six are on his back.
31:21One sits under his jaw.
31:23One is on the inside of his thigh.
31:25He won't explain that one.
31:27I put my mouth on each of them.
31:29When I get to the brand,
31:30I stay there longer.
31:32This one, we are going to put my name over.
31:36Sienna.
31:37Not removing it.
31:39Tattooing over it.
31:40I want my name on you.
31:42Not his number.
31:44He doesn't say anything for a long time.
31:49All right.
31:54Tomorrow, after we deal with the estate.
31:56After my father makes a call.
31:58Tomorrow night, we are going to a tattoo shop.
32:01We are covering that brand with my name.
32:06Tomorrow.
32:07I get up on my toes to reach his ear.
32:10And tonight, you are going to sleep in a real bed.
32:13In this house.
32:15In my bed.
32:17Sullivan can hear it through the wall,
32:19and I don't care.
32:19His eyes fill again.
32:21Different this time.
32:23We don't make it to my bed.
32:24We get as far as the bedroom door.
32:26He stops me in the doorway.
32:28He puts both hands flat on the frame.
32:30One hand on either side of my head.
32:32He looks down at me.
32:34I haven't had anyone since I was eight years old.
32:37I haven't been allowed to.
32:38I know that.
32:40I don't know how to do this slow.
32:43You did it last night.
32:44Last night, I was an animal you brought home from an alley.
32:47Tonight, I'm in your house.
32:49I'm in your father's house.
32:51I keep waiting for someone to come tell me to leave.
32:54I take his hand off the door frame.
32:56I put it on my throat.
32:58Over the bite mark.
32:59Nobody is coming to tell you to leave.
33:01He lifts me.
33:02Both hands under my thighs.
33:04He walks me to the bed.
33:05He lays me down gently.
33:07Slow tonight.
33:10He undresses me without taking his eye off my face.
33:13Each button and each strap.
33:15He folds the dress over the chair and sets it down carefully.
33:20Open for me.
33:20I open my knees for him.
33:22He kisses the inside of one, then the inside of the other.
33:25He works his way up slowly.
33:27He keeps his eye on my face the whole time.
33:29When his mouth gets where it is going, I make a sound.
33:32A sound I have never made in this house.
33:35I make sure it carries through the wall.
33:37He laughs against me.
33:39He doesn't stop what he's doing.
33:41When I come, he climbs back up me.
33:44He pushes in slowly, inch by inch.
33:46He watches my face the whole time.
33:49You're mine.
33:51Yours.
33:52He moves in long, slow strokes.
33:54The bed barely makes a sound.
33:56His weight rests on his forearms.
33:58His forehead presses it against mine.
34:00I have you.
34:02Nobody's taking you from me.
34:04He stops moving.
34:05He looks at me.
34:06Say that again, Sienna.
34:08Nobody's taking you.
34:09Not your uncle.
34:10And not the auctioneer.
34:11He is with me.
34:12He closes his eyes.
34:14He starts to move again.
34:16Slower and deeper than before.
34:18He puts his mouth back on the bite on my throat.
34:21He doesn't bite this time.
34:22He just rests his mouth on the mark and holds.
34:24When I come the second time, it is quiet between us.
34:27My whole body shakes under him and I don't make a sound.
34:30I just hold his face and watch him watch me.
34:32He follows me a minute later.
34:35He whispers something in the old language against my kolopon.
34:39What did you say?
34:42My mother's full name.
34:43I haven't said it to another person 15 years.
34:48I wanted her to hear yours.
34:54I wake up to my mother in the doorway.
34:57She is in her dressing gown with no makeup on.
35:00She has been up all night.
35:02Isander is asleep on his front beside me.
35:05One arm is thrown across my waist.
35:07The brand on his ribs is showing in the morning light.
35:09She sees the brand.
35:11She covers her mouth with both hands.
35:13I sit up slowly.
35:14I don't move his arm.
35:16Mom.
35:17Sienna.
35:18Come in or don't.
35:19Don't stand in the doorway.
35:21She comes in.
35:22She sits on the edge of the bed.
35:24She looks at his face.
35:26She looks at the bite on my neck.
35:28She looks back at his face again.
35:30Your father told me everything.
35:32The grandmother.
35:34The estate.
35:35The uncle who paid people to do this to him.
35:38And you brought him home this morning.
35:40Yes.
35:40After one night.
35:41She puts her hand on my knee through the blanket.
35:43I'm going to say something.
35:45You are going to let me say it.
35:48Go ahead.
35:49For 18 months I have watched the pure blood we bought you.
35:52I have watched him ignore you in this house.
35:54I told myself it was an adjustment.
35:57I told myself it was Cora's fault.
36:00I told myself it was the perfume.
36:03Mom.
36:03Let me finish.
36:05I am 60 years old.
36:08I don't know what to do with my face.
36:11I take her hand in mine.
36:13Tell me you're sorry.
36:15That's what you do with your face.
36:17She doesn't move for a while.
36:19I'm sorry.
36:20For Sullivan and for Cora.
36:22For all of it.
36:23For 18 years of looking for you and giving up.
36:27I am sorry, Sienna.
36:30I don't say anything back.
36:33She doesn't expect me to.
36:35She stands up from the bed.
36:37Your father is in the study.
36:38The lawyer is on his way.
36:40The estate must be moved out of probate today.
36:43Otherwise your uncle's brother will file a case by noon.
36:46Tell him I'm coming down.
36:48She stops at the door.
36:49She looks back at me.
36:51Sienna.
36:52What is it?
36:53Whatever this one is.
36:55Whatever they call him in their old language.
36:57He is the one I would have picked for you.
37:00If I had been the kind of mother who got to pick.
37:02She closes the door behind her.
37:05Lysaner's arm tightens on my waist.
37:07He has been awake for the last minute.
37:09Your mother just apologized to you.
37:12She did.
37:13In English.
37:15I noticed.
37:16My mother would have liked her.
37:18I kiss his shoulder.
37:19The scarred one.
37:22Get up.
37:23The lawyer arrives in 20 minutes.
37:27The lawyer arrives at 9.
37:29He sets his briefcase on my father's desk.
37:32He is 60-something in a gray suit.
37:34He has been delivering complicated news for 30 years.
37:38Mr. Quinn.
37:38Miss Quinn.
37:39Lord Drenman.
37:40Lysadar doesn't react to the title.
37:42He sits in the chair next to mine.
37:44His hand stays on the back of my chair.
37:46The estate of Lady Ayliss Drennan was propated in chambers last week.
37:50Her amended will was executed three days before her death.
37:53Three witnesses signed it.
37:56Read it to us.
37:57He reads it out loud.
37:58The estate of Lady Ayliss Drennan passes in full.
38:01It goes to the human woman bonded to her grandson.
38:04To Lysaldro of the North Forest.
38:06By name.
38:07Sienna Quinn.
38:08I sit there for a moment.
38:10The lawyer waits patiently.
38:13How much exactly?
38:14Eight hundred and forty million dollars in assets.
38:17Lands in three districts.
38:19A coastal harbor.
38:20Two textile mills.
38:22A working mine.
38:23A house you will never need to set feet in.
38:25Not if you don't wish to.
38:27Why me?
38:28She didn't trust her own house to protect her grandson.
38:31She made you the shield instead.
38:33She never met me.
38:35She had three people watching you for nine months.
38:39She knew exactly who she was leaving it to.
38:41Lysima hasn't moved during any of this.
38:44I turn to him.
38:45Did you know about this?
38:46No, I didn't.
38:47Did you suspect?
38:48I suspected she had someone watching me.
38:50I didn't know it was you.
38:52I didn't know it was already done.
38:54I look at the lawyer.
38:56Can I refuse it?
38:57You can.
38:58The estate then passes to the next eligible heir.
39:01Your husband's uncle.
39:02Lord Virk.
39:03I look at Lysadar.
39:06I'm not refusing it.
39:10No.
39:12It's not for me.
39:14It's for the boy in the chair.
39:16Yes.
39:17I sign the papers.
39:19There are 43 pages of them.
39:21The lawyer's pen runs out halfway through.
39:24My father gives him a new one.
39:26When it is done, the lawyer stands up.
39:28He bows slightly to be polite.
39:29Lady Drenum.
39:31Don't call me that yet.
39:32It is the name on the deed now, ma'am.
39:36He leaves the study.
39:37My father pours himself the brandy he didn't drink yesterday.
39:41He drinks it down now.
39:43Sienna.
39:44Dad.
39:45I gave you a pureblood for your birthday.
39:47He was the most expensive thing in this house.
39:50I remember.
39:52He is now the fourth most expensive thing in this house.
39:55And that is only counting your husband.
39:58The estate is the first.
40:00He looks at At Lysadar.
40:01Sotheby's takes Sullivan tomorrow.
40:03Open auction.
40:04No reserve.
40:06Dad.
40:07Not the auction.
40:08There's a retired doctor in Maine.
40:11He works with show orcs who couldn't adjust.
40:13Sullivan is going to relearn how to be a person.
40:16Without a master.
40:18My father studies my face.
40:20You are kinder than I would be in your place.
40:23I'm not kind.
40:25I'm just done with all of it.
40:27He nods.
40:28He picks up the phone to make the call.
40:32Six months later, the doctor in Maine writes back.
40:35Sullivan is feeding himself.
40:38He answers to his own name now.
40:40Lysadar squeezes my hand under the desk.
40:43I squeeze back.
40:45Outside the study window.
40:47Cora is on the lawn with her suitcase.
40:52Cora is in the garden when I find her.
40:55Her suitcase is open on the lawn.
40:57The housekeeper is folding sweats into it carefully.
41:00Cora is sitting on the stone bench.
41:02Her arms are wrapped around her knees.
41:04She is 17 years old.
41:06She looks 12.
41:07I leave on Friday.
41:09I know.
41:10I packed half of this myself.
41:12I saw you did.
41:13I sit down next to her on the bench.
41:16Sis.
41:20What is it?
41:23I saw you and him in the hallway last night.
41:26And?
41:27He put his hand on the back of your head.
41:30The way Sully puts his hand on mine when I'm crying.
41:34Cora.
41:35That isn't what I want to say.
41:37What I want to say is this.
41:38That was the first time in 18 months.
41:41The first time I have seen someone touch you like a person.
41:44Mom and dad don't ever touch you.
41:47Sully doesn't touch you.
41:48I throw things at you.
41:51You don't have anybody, sis.
41:53I have him now.
41:55That's exactly what I'm saying.
41:57She turns on the bench to face me.
41:59I have been telling myself this story for two years.
42:03The story is that you stole my life from me.
42:06You came in.
42:07You pushed me out of every spot I had.
42:10Maybe that's true a little.
42:12But I watched you walk into the foite yesterday.
42:15Your hair was unwashed.
42:17There was a bite mark on your throat.
42:19A seven-foot orc walked in behind you.
42:22And I realized something.
42:24What?
42:25You weren't pushing me out.
42:27You were finally walking in.
42:29You have been outside this family the entire time.
42:32I just couldn't see it before.
42:34I am quiet for a long moment.
42:36I'm not asking you to forgive me.
42:38I'm asking you to let me write to you.
42:41Every Sunday.
42:42Handwritten letters.
42:43Mailed at the end of every month.
42:45Yes.
42:46I'll write back to one in three.
42:48Not when you're performing.
42:50When you stop performing.
42:52Deal.
42:54She wipes her face with the back of her hand.
42:57He is going to be your husband for real, isn't he?
43:02He already is.
43:04We're doing the rest of the paperwork next week.
43:07Can I come to the wedding?
43:11Yes.
43:12Even from Switzerland?
43:14We'll fly you back for the day.
43:16You can come back at Christmas every year, too.
43:20Lindenburg until 21.
43:21Then we see who you've become.
43:24She nods at that.
43:25She puts her head on my shoulder.
43:29She hasn't done that since she was 11.
43:31I remember the exact date.
43:34Sis.
43:36He loves you.
43:38I know that.
43:40He loves you in a way Sully never loved me.
43:43I figured it out this morning.
43:47How did you figure it out?
43:49Sully loved being mine.
43:51Lysither loves you.
43:53She gets up from the bench.
43:55She goes back to her suitcase.
43:57I sit there a moment longer.
43:59The housekeeper folds another sweater.
44:02The sun moves on the lawn.
44:04Tonight, Lester and I have a tattoo to get.
44:09That night, Lester and I drive into the city.
44:12We go to a tattoo shop on the Lower East Side.
44:15The artist is a woman in her 50s.
44:18Half her face is tattooed already.
44:20She doesn't blink at his size.
44:23Or at his face.
44:24She says only one thing.
44:26Show me what we're covering.
44:28He lifts his shirt.
44:31The brand is right there.
44:32The number 12.
44:34The raised ridges of the six older numbers are visible underneath.
44:38What do you want to put over it?
44:40Her name.
44:42She looks over at me.
44:44She doesn't ask if I am sure about this.
44:48What font?
44:49Whatever he wants.
44:51I want to be able to read it from across a room.
44:55She draws something on tracing paper.
44:57She holds the paper up to his ribs.
44:59The word reads Sienna in tall block letters.
45:03Tall enough to swallow the brand whole.
45:06Tall enough to swallow the six numbers underneath it.
45:09That one.
45:10She does the work.
45:12It takes four hours.
45:15He doesn't make a single sound the whole time.
45:18He keeps his eyes on me.
45:20I sit on a stool beside the table.
45:22I hold his hand.
45:24I don't let go once.
45:26When she is finished, she wipes him down.
45:29She wraps the ribs in plastic.
45:31She steps back to look.
45:34Lord Drennaman.
45:36I don't work on Highborn.
45:38I have never been asked to.
45:40Why me tonight?
45:41Because you don't work on Highborn.
45:43Because you wouldn't have done this for my uncle.
45:45Because this is not a Drenium tattoo.
45:48She nods slowly.
45:49She understands what he means.
45:53He sits up on the table.
45:55He looks down at his own side.
45:57The word Sienna sits under the plastic.
45:59The skin is red around the edges and starting to scab over.
46:02The brand is gone.
46:04The six numbers under it are gone.
46:06Everything is gone except my name on him.
46:08He puts his hand flat over it.
46:10His eyes fill with tears.
46:25He pays the artist three times what she charged him.
46:29She doesn't argue with that.
46:31In the car, he keeps his hand over the tattoo.
46:36The whole way home.
46:39Sienna.
46:40What is it?
46:41My grandmother left you 840 million dollars.
46:44I'm aware of that.
46:47And you took me to a tattoo shop and a strip mall.
46:53I had to keep my promise to you.
46:55He laughs quietly at that.
46:58Will you marry me, Sienna?
46:59The legal kind.
47:01With the paper and the witnesses.
47:03So when somebody asks me what I am,
47:06my answer doesn't start with the word mongrel.
47:09Yes.
47:10When?
47:12Next Saturday.
47:13The garden.
47:14Cora flies back for the day.
47:16My father walks me out.
47:18And your mother?
47:19My mother is doing my hair.
47:22She told me this morning.
47:24I didn't even ask her.
47:26He kisses my hand.
47:28The one I am still holding his with.
47:32Saturday is six days away.
47:34Six days to plan a wedding.
47:38It is Saturday in the garden behind the house.
47:41There are 40 chairs set out.
47:43And white ribbon on every one.
47:45The housekeeper has been crying since dawn
47:48for reasons he won't explain.
47:51My mother does my hair on the back porch.
47:54She works in silence for a long time.
47:57Your grandmother had this hair.
47:59I never told you.
48:01I never met her.
48:03No, you didn't.
48:04She would have liked you.
48:06She would have hated him.
48:09Mom.
48:10That is a compliment.
48:12The women in my family always hated the right men.
48:16She secures the last pin.
48:19She steps back from the mirror.
48:22You look like her, Sienna.
48:24You haven't said that before.
48:27I haven't been able to say it.
48:29She sets the brush down.
48:32I'm going to sit in the front row.
48:34I am going to cry.
48:36Don't look at me.
48:37Look at him.
48:39I was already going to.
48:41She kisses the top of my head.
48:44She walks down to the garden.
48:48Cora comes in wearing a white dress.
48:50She is the maid of honor.
48:52We didn't announce this.
48:54She just showed up in it.
48:56He's already there, sis.
48:57I can see him through the window.
49:00He is in a black coat with a dark red lining.
49:04Those are the North Forest colors.
49:06His mother's scene is on the collar.
49:08The lawyer in Geneva sent it over.
49:11He is standing at the end of the garden in the sun.
49:15His eyes are closed.
49:17Cora hands me the bouquet.
49:20Don't trip, sis.
49:22I won't trip.
49:25My father is in the doorway behind us.
49:28He has stopped shaking these last few days.
49:31Sweetheart.
49:32Daddy.
49:34I gave you a pure blood for your 22nd birthday.
49:40I remember.
49:42I want to give you something today.
49:45Something I should have given you back then.
49:48Permission to walk out of any room.
49:51Any room you don't want to be in.
49:52You're a little late on that, Dad.
49:54I know.
49:55Take it anyway.
49:57He puts my hand on his arm.
49:59He walks me down the aisle.
50:01Lysander opens his eyes.
50:03He has been waiting since 10 in the morning.
50:05He isn't going to miss a single step now.
50:09My father puts my hand in his hand.
50:12Take care of her, son.
50:14The first 18 years I didn't.
50:18Yes, sir.
50:20The priest is the chaplain from our parish church.
50:23He reads in English.
50:25Lysander asked him for this.
50:27He says the vows.
50:28I say the vows back.
50:30The priest closes the book.
50:31There is one tradition I have been asked to honor.
50:35Lord Drenamon, speak the name your mother gave you, loud enough for the garden to hear.
50:41Lysander doesn't turn to face the chairs.
50:44He turns to face me, instead.
50:46He says it.
50:48Three syllables in the old language.
50:51The chairs are quiet for a beat.
50:53Then 40 people say it back in two languages at once.
50:57My parents.
50:58Cora.
50:58The housekeeper and the lawyer.
51:01The tattoo artist in the back row.
51:03The priest turns to me.
51:05Lady Drenard.
51:07There is no human tradition for this party.
51:10Say what you wish to say.
51:11I look out at the chairs and speak up.
51:13My name is Sienna Drevborn.
51:15I bought him in an alley with cash.
51:18He's mine now.
51:19The garden laughs at that.
51:21Lysadar does not.
51:23His eyes are wet.
51:25He leans down to me.
51:27He kisses my face first.
51:30Then my mouth.
51:32The priest closes the book.
51:34It was an intimate reception.
51:36Forty chairs were placed around round tables.
51:39At eight o'clock, the garden was lit up with lanterns.
51:43My father stands first.
51:45He taps his glass with a fork.
51:47I had a speech written.
51:49I'm not going to give it tonight.
51:51I'm going to say one thing instead.
51:54He looks at Lysadar.
51:57My daughter ate breakfast alone in this house for eighteen months.
52:02She doesn't anymore.
52:04That's because of you.
52:06Sit down.
52:08Eat the cake.
52:10Lysadar sits back down.
52:13Cora stands up next.
52:15She is shaking.
52:17She has never given a speech.
52:19My sister came home at twenty-three.
52:21The day she walked through the door,
52:23I threw a butter knife at her head.
52:25I missed by an inch.
52:27I have spent two years wishing I had not missed.
52:31The garden goes very still.
52:33I'm leaving for Switzerland on Tuesday.
52:36I am going to be a different person when I come back.
52:41Not because she sent me away.
52:43Because she came and found me crying last week.
52:47And she didn't have to.
52:49I look up at her.
52:52My father has been talking to her about more than I knew.
52:56I want her husband to know something too.
52:59You take care of her.
53:01That's all I'm asking.
53:03For as long as you walk.
53:05Lysadar stands.
53:06He bows slightly to her.
53:09Yes.
53:11She sits down crying.
53:13My mother takes her hand under the table.
53:16Later, there is dancing.
53:19Lysadar has never been allowed to dance.
53:21The first thing he does is step on my foot.
53:25I'm sorry, Sienna.
53:27That was your foot.
53:28Try again.
53:30He tries again.
53:32He steps on foot again.
53:34I am terrible at this.
53:37You are terrible.
53:38Keep going anyway.
53:41By the fifth song, he isn't terrible anymore.
53:44He has stopped looking down at his feet.
53:47My mother dances with my father.
53:49They haven't danced together in a decade.
53:52He cries on her shoulder, quietly.
53:54She pretends not to notice.
53:56At eleven, I find At Lysadar at the edge of the garden.
53:59He has two glasses of champagne.
54:03For me?
54:04For you.
54:06I take one.
54:07We sit on the stone bench.
54:10Where Cora and I sat last week.
54:13Lady Drenman.
54:14Don't start with that.
54:17You'll have to get used to it eventually.
54:20Just not tonight.
54:21We are quiet together for a moment.
54:24I have a question, At Sienna.
54:26I've been holding it since the bath.
54:28Ask me anything.
54:30The first night in the alley, the trader said I was already ruined.
54:34Why did you say yes?
54:36I told you.
54:38Because nobody else would.
54:40Is that the whole answer?
54:41No, it isn't.
54:44Tell me the rest.
54:46I thought you were like me.
54:48That we could be together.
54:50He puts down his glass.
54:52Sienna.
54:53Since the first time I held you, I have been afraid you would not stay.
54:58I am staying.
55:00He picks me up off the bench.
55:02He carries me through the garden to the back door.
55:05The garden is empty by now.
55:07The lanterns are still on.
55:10Take me upstairs, husband.
55:12Yes.
55:13We are in our bedroom.
55:16The fire is in the hearth.
55:19The door is closed behind us.
55:21He sets me down on the rug.
55:23He kneels down in front of me.
55:25He undoes the dress slowly.
55:27The same way he did it the first night in this house.
55:32He stops when the bodious falls.
55:34I need to tell you something before tonight starts.
55:39I sit down on the rug with him.
55:42Tell me what it is.
55:43I'm going to wake up tomorrow and you'll still be here.
55:46And the day after.
55:48I didn't believe that until today.
55:51What changed today?
55:52Forty men in your garden called out my mother's name.
55:56You stood before them all.
55:58You said you bought me from an alley.
56:01You said it loudly.
56:03He puts his hand over the tattoo on his ribs.
56:05Your name is on me.
56:08Everyone in that garden knows it.
56:10They do.
56:11He leans his forehead against mine.
56:14I'm yours.
56:15You're mine.
56:16I press my forehead back against his.
56:19I pull him down to the rug with me.
56:22I put my mouth on the tattoo.
56:26Lay back for me.
56:29He lays back on the rug.
56:31I want to look at you tonight.
56:34Look at me then.
56:35I sit on his hips.
56:37I put his hands on my waist.
56:39I move slow.
56:40He watches me the whole time.
56:43Neither of us is in a hurry.
56:44We have time now.
56:45When I come.
56:47He holds me through it.
56:48He doesn't look away once.
56:52He follows me a minute later.
56:56He sits up afterwards.
56:58He pulls me against his chest.
57:00He puts his mouth on the bite on my throat.
57:03The scar is healed now.
57:05He kisses it instead of biting it.
57:08I love you, Sianna Drennan.
57:11I love you too, Lissadar.
57:13He pulls the blanket down over us.
57:15The fire is still going in the hearth.
57:17He falls asleep on his back with his hand over the tattoo.
57:21His other hand stays on my hip.
57:23I lie awake for a few minutes.
57:26Listening to him breathe steady.
57:29Eighteen months ago, I ate breakfast alone.
57:32Three weeks ago, I bought a man in an alley.
57:35Tonight, my husband is asleep on the rug.
57:38My name is on his ribs.
57:41Best money I ever spent.
57:43I close my eyes and sleep.
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