- 7 hours ago
La Dama de la Finca Ashford
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🎥
Short filmTranscript
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.
00:19Meanwhile, I took control of the entire serpent clan and earned my husband's devotion.
00:24She 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 the 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, mated 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?
01:25Mother, 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.
01:41Lady 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.
02:05He 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.
02:12Victoria 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.
02:42I'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.
03:26She 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 moment the meal was over, she dragged him out the door.
03:44Adrian and I didn't linger long after that.
03:46When we got back to the main hall of the Ashford estate,
03:48I found Rosalind crouched beside the matriarch,
03:51kneading her shoulders with practiced hands.
03:53The matriarch had her eyes half closed,
03:55looking more comfortable than I'd seen her in days.
04:00Rosalind, you have such skilled hands.
04:06Come do this for me often.
04:11I didn't realize she'd caught your eye.
04:14She came in with us on the wedding day.
04:17Quite a hard life, raising a child alone.
04:19I've tried to look out for her.
04:21I know what kind of heart you have.
04:24The Ashfords are lucky to have you.
04:26Rosalind stepped back.
04:28Her teeth pressed into her lip.
04:30The matriarch and I moved naturally into conversation about the estate,
04:34the accounts, a few household matters that needed settling.
04:37When something important came up,
04:39the matriarch waved Rosalind out of the room,
04:41without thinking about it.
04:43I watched the hatred pool behind Rosalind's eyes as she left.
04:47Adrian's brow pulled together.
04:49He's only a child.
04:50This is excessive.
04:51Let it go.
04:52If a child has no father to correct him,
04:54the mother answers for it.
04:56Or have I lost even that much authority in my own home?
04:59Is a servant woman more important to you than your wife?
05:02He closed his mouth.
05:04Rosalind grabbed my sleeve.
05:05Her face was wet.
05:07I don't matter.
05:09But I'm due at the matriarch's,
05:11and if I'm late, she'll be displeased.
05:13I laughed once, short and cold,
05:15and had a chair brought out to the courtyard.
05:17How bold.
05:18A woman brought in off the street is lecturing me in my own house.
05:22Someone go ask the matriarch if she'd weigh in on a servant
05:24who just spoke down to the estate's mistress.
05:26You're going too far.
05:28The boy didn't mean anything.
05:29Rosalind stood just behind his shoulder.
05:31She reached out and curled her fingers gently around his sleeve.
05:35The three of them, together in the moonlight.
05:37They looked like a family portrait.
05:38Adrian was trembling with anger.
05:40He grabbed Rosalind and the boy and started to walk them away.
05:43Ivy was faster.
05:44The matriarch says he kneels, three hours,
05:46and cut off their meals and move them to the servant's storage room for the night.
05:50Well, she was tired.
05:53The brightness she'd walked in with last time was gone.
05:57Her smile, when she tried it, didn't work properly.
06:01How did you do it?
06:03I smiled and touched my stomach.
06:06When you have something better, why would you settle?
06:09She understood immediately.
06:12Her eyes dropped to my hand.
06:15She went very still.
06:16Then the stillness broke, and what came out was pure envy.
06:21You're just lucky.
06:23Everything always falls into place for you.
06:25The smile left my face.
06:27I set down my tea.
06:29Lucky.
06:29My birth mother died in front of me.
06:32I spent years in this house as furniture,
06:35useful only when needed and invisible the rest of the time.
06:39Every gain I'd made in my past life, and this one,
06:43had been mapped out, move by move, late at night, alone.
06:48Lucky wasn't the word.
06:51I hear things haven't been going so well for you.
06:53You look thin.
06:55She shot to her feet.
06:57I'm perfectly fine.
06:58My husband comes only to my room.
07:01He dismissed all the others.
07:02I run my own household.
07:03No one dares touch me.
07:05I let myself laugh.
07:07She heard it for what it was,
07:09and it hit her somewhere deep,
07:11because she spun around and walked out without another word.
07:15The serpent had dismissed those women
07:17because he was afraid of being found out,
07:20not because he felt anything.
07:22His visits to her room were maintenance, nothing more.
07:26The more she gave, the more he took.
07:29Her body was already paying the bill.
07:32In the end, she'd believed what she'd wanted to believe.
07:36I didn't know how much longer she had.
07:39He could barely get through it without going red in the face.
07:43Victoria had purchased something from one of our suppliers.
07:46A particular kind of compound.
07:49When I pressed for details,
07:50the man turned the color of a peony
07:52and started examining the floor.
07:55I understood.
07:55Victoria was pregnant again.
07:57She announced it with a dinner party.
07:59The invitation arrived on my desk.
08:01Ivy told me not to go.
08:03Why wouldn't I?
08:04Running away was never my style.
08:06The party drew the wives of every major shifter clan.
08:10They found me within minutes of arriving
08:12and pulled me into a circle of warm, elaborate compliments.
08:16Victoria's face went through several difficult stages
08:19before she managed to control it.
08:21She breathed in, breathed out, and crossed the room to me.
08:25The smile I gave her was direct and had teeth.
08:28Look at you. Jealous?
08:30Her composure buckled.
08:31She turned and walked away in fast, rigid steps.
08:34I finished my drink.
08:36My eyes drifted to the maid standing just behind her.
08:39I smiled to myself, said something low to Ivy,
08:42and watched her slip away through the crowd.
08:44Later, a group of us walked out to the back garden.
08:47We heard it before we saw it.
08:49There, half hidden behind a stone wall,
08:51the serpent was pressed against a serving girl,
08:54unhurried, as if he'd forgotten or didn't care
08:57that there were guests 20 feet away.
09:00When we got close enough, he still didn't stop.
09:02One of the wives sucked in a sharp breath.
09:04Isn't that the woman who was thrown out of the Ashford Palace?
09:08Every head turned toward me.
09:10Someone clicked her tongue.
09:11Honestly, and that boy, who even knows?
09:14Victoria came through the garden gate with her attendants,
09:16reached the two of them,
09:17and wrenched them apart with shaking hands.
09:20How dare you!
09:22She hit him.
09:23He looked at her the way you look at something mildly inconvenient,
09:26the smear of lip color still on his jaw.
09:28You can't keep up.
09:29I'm not going to starve because of that.
09:31Don't make a scene.
09:32He shoved her back, not gently,
09:35then curved a protective arm around Rosalyn
09:37as they retreated through the gate.
09:39Victoria hit the ground.
09:40Red bloomed beneath her.
09:42She stopped being a person for a moment.
09:44She curled into herself and started murmuring over and over.
09:48Even again.
09:50Why is it always like this?
09:53She tried to crawl toward me, hands reaching.
09:55Adrienne came through the gate behind her
09:57and kicked her back before she could reach me.
09:59Not carefully.
10:00The gathered wives had lost their appetite for the evening.
10:03They called for their maids and started for the carriages.
10:06After that, I never saw Victoria again.
10:08I want to deal with Crane openly, in front of the full clan.
10:12That's a risk.
10:13I have the documents from Rosany.
10:15The succession vesting.
10:17Victoria's testimony in writing.
10:19Witness before she left.
10:21If I lay it all at once, there's no recovery from it.
10:24And the serpent?
10:25That I'll leave to the serpent clan's own politics.
10:28They'll handle it faster than we could.
10:30At the formal clan gathering, Elder Crane held high a document.
10:33I have evidence of financial misconduct within the Ashfield estate accounts,
10:37dating back to the very year the current mistress arrived.
10:41May I see the document?
10:43He handed it over with confidence.
10:45I read it, looked up.
10:46Those discrepancies were identified, documented, and corrected
10:50in the first month after I took over management.
10:52The shop manager responsible was dismissed.
10:55I turned to the matriarch.
10:56I believe you have the original corrective record in the household archive.
11:00The matriarch nodded.
11:01Crane's composure cracked.
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