- 13 hours ago
The Mongrel husband I Bought for Five Grand HD 720p ARS
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Short filmTranscript
00:00:09To be continued...
00:00:30I've got something cheap. Won't bleed much on your carpet.
00:00:33I almost stand up to knock his teeth in.
00:00:35Tonight's auction leftover. Nobody bid on him. We torch him at sunrise.
00:00:39Here's how it works in this country. Orc auctions are the biggest industry on the East Coast.
00:00:44The pretty ones go for millions. The ugly ones go to labor camps.
00:00:47The leftovers get burned. And tonight, I happen to need something to burn.
00:00:50What's wrong with him?
00:00:52Faster if I tell you what's right.
00:00:54Mongol. Halfbreed. One-eyed dead. Tusk snap. Big bastard. Tank of a body. Takes a hit. Keeps coming.
00:00:59Show me.
00:01:06I forget how to breathe.
00:01:08Seven foot two. Ash gray skin. Scar tissue running from his hairline down to his collar.
00:01:14The left side of his face is wrecked. A white scar cuts him from temple to jaw.
00:01:18That eye is dead. Cloudy. Half blind. Left tusk snapped in half. The right one filed sharp.
00:01:26His horn broken clean at the tip. Shoulders so wide they nearly scrape both walls of the alley.
00:01:31The traitor kicks the back of his knee. He drops. The cobblestones crack.
00:01:36Look at that face, sweetheart. Do whatever you want to him. You can't ruin what's already ruined.
00:01:44The orc lifts his head. His one good eye finds mine. Amber. Calm. Way too calm for someone scheduled to
00:01:54be ashes by sunrise.
00:01:56Then I think about Sullivan. My husband. The one waiting at home. Silk shirts ironed by staff.
00:02:03Six foot ten of factory perfect pureblood orc. He sleeps in my stepsister's wing.
00:02:09The official reason is my perfume gives him headaches. He brushes her hair every morning.
00:02:14I eat breakfast alone. Eighteen months of that. You getting this?
00:02:18Me. Sienna Quinn. Sullivan came from the biggest fortune in New York.
00:02:2323 years old. Two million dollars I paid for a husband who thinks I smell bad.
00:02:27I grind my cigarette into the pavement.
00:02:31How much to keep him?
00:02:34You don't keep a mongrel. You rent him for an hour till you...
00:02:38Number.
00:02:3960 grand.
00:02:40Five.
00:02:42Lady, are you out of...
00:02:44Five. Cash. Right now. Or I call my father. He sits on the welfare bureau board.
00:02:50You'd love to hear what your operation moves through this alley.
00:02:55Deal.
00:02:55I peel off the bills. The chain drops into my palm. Cold. Heavier than I expected.
00:03:05The orc tilts his head. When he speaks, his voice comes out low and rough.
00:03:11If you wanted to hurt something pretty, you should have walked past me.
00:03:16I don't want to hurt anything.
00:03:23Then why?
00:03:26I look up at his face.
00:03:29Because tonight, the world's most beautiful orc is at home.
00:03:33He won't look me in the eye.
00:03:35And this half-blind mongry just did.
00:03:38I tug the chain, gentle, just once.
00:03:41Because nobody else would.
00:03:48The Uber driver locks every door the second listener folds in.
00:03:52He has to fold himself sideways to fit.
00:03:55Head against the roof.
00:03:56One knee in my lap.
00:03:58Shoulder pinning me against the window.
00:04:00I haven't been this close to another body in a long time.
00:04:04What's your name?
00:04:05He stares at the headpred for two whole blocks.
00:04:09Lysiander.
00:04:11My mother named me Lysiander.
00:04:13The auction tag calls me Mongrel 72.
00:04:1771 before him.
00:04:18All burned.
00:04:20I'm Sienna.
00:04:21I'm not calling you a number.
00:04:23He doesn't say thank you.
00:04:25He doesn't believe me yet.
00:04:27That's fine.
00:04:28He will.
00:04:30The plaza.
00:04:31Penthouse.
00:04:32I slipped the bellman 300 bucks to wipe the security footage.
00:04:36He doesn't ask why.
00:04:37That's the thing about money.
00:04:39The right amount makes problems vanish.
00:04:41In the suite, Lysiander has to duck to clear the doorway.
00:04:44His broken horn scrapes plaster off the ceiling.
00:04:47Sit.
00:04:48The couch will hold you.
00:04:50I don't sit on furniture.
00:04:52You do now.
00:04:54He sits.
00:04:55The frame groans under him.
00:04:57He puts his hands flat on his knees.
00:05:00Palms down.
00:05:01Fingers spread.
00:05:02The pose you train an animal to hold.
00:05:05Somebody taught him that.
00:05:06I'll deal with that later.
00:05:09I come back from the bathroom with a wet towel.
00:05:12The second I lift it toward his face, his head snaps back hard.
00:05:16Don't!
00:05:17It's just water.
00:05:19That side of my face is dead, Sienna.
00:05:21My body remembers the hand, not what's in it.
00:05:25I lower the towel slowly.
00:05:27I sit beside him on the couch.
00:05:29I don't touch him.
00:05:31Eighteen months in a marriage with no contact.
00:05:34Two hours in a hotel room with a stranger who flinches when I try.
00:05:38God, we're a pair.
00:05:40Tell me who took the eye.
00:05:43The owner's son, he got his first hunting knife for his twelfth birthday.
00:05:49His father told him to practice on something that didn't matter.
00:05:54I pick up his hand.
00:05:56I turn it over.
00:05:57The inside of his wrist is covered in burn scars.
00:06:00Old slave caps over older slave caps.
00:06:03Layers of them.
00:06:05I press my mouth to the inside of his wrist.
00:06:08He stops breathing.
00:06:10Don't be soft with me, Sienna.
00:06:13I'll break.
00:06:15Then break.
00:06:18He drops his forehead into my shoulder.
00:06:21He shakes against me.
00:06:23I put my hand on the back of his head.
00:06:26His hair is rough.
00:06:28Not like Sullivan's silk and conditioner mane.
00:06:31But somehow it makes me feel safer than Sullivan ever did.
00:06:37My phone buzzes on the nightstand.
00:06:40Sully is losing it.
00:06:41He smells another orc on you.
00:06:43He's pacing the foyer.
00:06:45Tusks won't retract.
00:06:47Where are you?
00:06:48I read it twice.
00:06:50Then I smile.
00:06:51First real smile in 18 months.
00:06:54You have to understand my life.
00:06:56I was five years old when somebody matched me off a sidewalk in Queens.
00:07:00My parents looked for me for one year.
00:07:03Then they gave up.
00:07:04And adopted a baby girl from the system.
00:07:06They named her Cora.
00:07:08She got 18 years of birthday parties.
00:07:10Ballet lessons.
00:07:11Piano recitals.
00:07:12Family vacations.
00:07:13I got 18 years of foster homes.
00:07:16A juvie cell at 11.
00:07:17A girl gang in Bushwick at 14.
00:07:19And a DNA test at 23 that matched me to the Quinns.
00:07:22When I walked through their door at 23.
00:07:24My little sister was 17.
00:07:26She'd been the only daughter her entire life.
00:07:29She screamed.
00:07:30She broke a vase.
00:07:32She threw a butter knife at my head and missed by an inch.
00:07:34Get out of my house, you trash!
00:07:39My mother held her and stroked her hair.
00:07:41My father stepped between us.
00:07:43Your sister's been spoiled.
00:07:44Try to be patient, sweetheart.
00:07:45That was the day I learned the rules of this family.
00:07:47I keep my mouth shut about Bushwick.
00:07:50I keep my mouth shut about the pickpocking.
00:07:52I smile pretty at brunch.
00:07:56I cry on cue when the inheritance lawyer drops by.
00:07:59The allowance keeps showing up.
00:08:01Every birthday, my parents buy me something extravagant.
00:08:04Paying down the guilt of 18 years they spent not looking hard enough.
00:08:07On my 22nd, they bought me Sullivan.
00:08:09Two million dollar pureblood orc.
00:08:11Show quality bloodline.
00:08:12Brushed coat.
00:08:13Polished tusks.
00:08:14Your sister's so quiet, sweetheart.
00:08:16A companion orc would help her come out of her shell.
00:08:19Cora screamed for three days.
00:08:21Then, she ran away with him for ten.
00:08:24She brought him back skin and bones.
00:08:26My mother slapped her across the face for the first time in her life.
00:08:29And from that day forward, Sullivan only responded to one set of footsteps in the hallway.
00:08:33Hers.
00:08:34He'd lived ten days as her stray.
00:08:36He decided she was his real owner.
00:08:39I was just the woman whose name was on the paperwork.
00:08:42Eighteen months of eating breakfast alone in a house with five other people in it.
00:08:47I look down at the phone.
00:08:49Me.
00:08:51Tell him to get used to it.
00:08:52I press send.
00:08:54I put both my hands on At Lysman's face.
00:08:57I make him look at me.
00:08:58You're staying with me.
00:09:01You don't know what you just bought.
00:09:04Then tell me in the morning.
00:09:07He pulls me against his chest.
00:09:09His arm is bigger around than my waist.
00:09:13His heartbeat is slow and heavy under my ear.
00:09:16He's asleep in three minutes.
00:09:18I lie in the dark, listening to him breathe.
00:09:21In eighteen months, my pure-blood husband has never once fallen asleep in the same room as me.
00:09:25The mongrel I bought for five grand has been mine for two hours and he's already unconscious on my chest.
00:09:30Best money I've ever spent.
00:09:33I wake up because there's a hand around my throat.
00:09:36His whole palm covers my neck.
00:09:38His thumb sits on my pulse.
00:09:40He isn't squeezing.
00:09:42He's staring at the door.
00:09:43This isn't a threat.
00:09:44He's checking the room.
00:09:46I keep my voice low.
00:09:50Talk to me.
00:09:53What's at the door?
00:09:54Somebody's in the hallway.
00:09:56Get behind me.
00:09:57He's off the bed in one movement.
00:10:00Three hundred pounds of orc and not a sound on the carpet.
00:10:04He puts his eye to the peephole.
00:10:06His shoulders drop.
00:10:08Room service.
00:10:09He opens the door.
00:10:11The bellboy on the other side sees seven feet of scarred mongrel filling the frame and drops the tray.
00:10:17Lysander catches it before it hits the carpet.
00:10:19Without looking down, he closes the door.
00:10:23He stands with his back to me.
00:10:27Send me back to the trader at sunrise.
00:10:29I sit up in bed.
00:10:30What?
00:10:31He keeps the five thousand.
00:10:34He puts me down anyway.
00:10:36You walk away clean.
00:10:39Lycian!
00:10:40Your pure blood forgives you.
00:10:43Your family forgives you.
00:10:44The story is, you got drunk.
00:10:46You did something stupid.
00:10:47You came home.
00:10:50End of story.
00:10:52I get out of bed.
00:10:54I cross the carpet barefoot.
00:10:57I stand on my toes to put my palm flat against his sternum.
00:11:01His heart is jackrabbiting under my hand.
00:11:04He's terrified.
00:11:06Afraid last night was a lie.
00:11:10Did you sleep tonight?
00:11:12Yes.
00:11:14Three hours.
00:11:16How long since you slept three hours in a row before that?
00:11:20His mouth opens.
00:11:21He doesn't have an answer.
00:11:26I take a breath.
00:11:28I've been married for 18 months to the most beautiful orc in this city.
00:11:33He looks at me.
00:11:35He won't enter my bedroom.
00:11:37He won't touch my hand at dinner.
00:11:40He sleeps in a different wing because my perfume gives him a headache.
00:11:44He brushes my stepster's hair every morning and pretends I'm not at the table.
00:11:48I curl my fingers in the fabric of his shirt.
00:11:53I've been invisible in my own house for 18 months.
00:11:57Sienna.
00:11:58Tonight you saw me first.
00:12:00I look up.
00:12:01You fell asleep on my chest in three minutes.
00:12:05Do you understand what that did to me?
00:12:08I'm not sending you back.
00:12:10He stares down at me.
00:12:11His eyes are wet.
00:12:13You shouldn't love a thing like me.
00:12:16Then we have a problem.
00:12:18Because I think I already do.
00:12:20I take his hand.
00:12:22I lead him back to the bed.
00:12:24Lay down.
00:12:25You haven't slept in three days.
00:12:28He lays down.
00:12:29I curl on his chest.
00:12:32My ear is right over his heart.
00:12:36Why did you really put your hand on my throat earlier?
00:12:40Habit.
00:12:41Mongrels reach for the threat first.
00:12:45Always.
00:12:48You weren't threatening me.
00:12:50You were guarding me.
00:12:52He almost laughs.
00:12:54He tips my chin up with one knuckle.
00:12:57His eye catches the light.
00:12:59Sullivan never touched you, did he?
00:13:04He never sat on the same couch as me.
00:13:07He leans down.
00:13:09Then I'm going to be the first thing on your skin.
00:13:11He kisses me.
00:13:13Hard.
00:13:14The broken tusk drags my lower lip open.
00:13:17He licks the cut.
00:13:19I moan into his mouth.
00:13:20He grabs both my wrists in one hand and pins them above my head.
00:13:25Other hand grips my jaw.
00:13:26Open.
00:13:27I open.
00:13:28His tongue is in my mouth.
00:13:30His knee shoves my thighs apart.
00:13:33He drops his weight on me.
00:13:34The bed dips.
00:13:36The frame groans.
00:13:38He's hard.
00:13:39I feel him against my hip.
00:13:41Through the fabric.
00:13:42Heavy.
00:13:43Thick.
00:13:43I whine.
00:13:44Look at you.
00:13:45Tiny thing.
00:13:47Already shaking for me.
00:13:49He shoves my night ground up to my waist.
00:13:51One hand.
00:13:52The other still pinning my wrists.
00:13:54His palm slides down between my thighs.
00:13:56Already wet.
00:13:57Listener.
00:13:59Say please.
00:14:01Say it, Sienna.
00:14:05Please.
00:14:10His fingers work into me.
00:14:12Two at once.
00:14:14Thick.
00:14:15Rough.
00:14:16He's watching my face.
00:14:18That's it.
00:14:19There she is.
00:14:20He keeps going till I'm shaking under him.
00:14:23Then, he stops.
00:14:25No.
00:14:27Hush.
00:14:28I want you on my tongue first.
00:14:34He drops down the bed.
00:14:36Shoulders shoove my thighs wider.
00:14:38He hooks both my knees over his shoulders.
00:14:40His mouth goes to me.
00:14:42The intact tusk drags along my inner thigh.
00:14:44The sharp one.
00:14:45Just enough pressure to mark.
00:14:47I cry out.
00:14:49He eats me till my hands tear the sheets.
00:14:51Till my hips lift off the bed for him.
00:14:53He holds me down with one forearm across my stomach.
00:14:56When I come, he is watching me the whole time.
00:14:58He climbs back up me.
00:14:59His mouth is wet.
00:15:00He kisses me with it.
00:15:02Let's me taste myself.
00:15:03Now, look at me when I take you.
00:15:05He pushes in.
00:15:06Slow.
00:15:07So slow.
00:15:09I feel every inch.
00:15:11I'm small under him.
00:15:13He's huge.
00:15:14He stretches me till my eyes go wet.
00:15:17He stops halfway.
00:15:19Breathe.
00:15:22He pushes the rest of the way in.
00:15:25I gasp his name.
00:15:27He swallows it.
00:15:28He starts to move.
00:15:30Deep.
00:15:30Hard.
00:15:31Steady.
00:15:32Each thrust pushes me up the mattress.
00:15:34His free hand pulls me back down onto him.
00:15:37Mine.
00:15:38He says it on every stroke.
00:15:40I sigh it back.
00:15:41Fuck me hard, Visealer.
00:15:43His good eye goes black.
00:15:46He bites the bond spot.
00:15:48Right where my neck meets my shoulder.
00:15:50My whole spine snaps tight.
00:15:53My hands fist in the sheets.
00:15:55I cry out into his hair.
00:15:57He holds me through it.
00:16:02He licks the blood off his lip.
00:16:04Then he licks the bite.
00:16:07Mine.
00:16:08Say it back.
00:16:10Yours.
00:16:10Again.
00:16:11Yours, Visealer.
00:16:13He kisses me hard.
00:16:14I taste my own blood in his mouth.
00:16:16And I don't care.
00:16:18It's done.
00:16:19You can't undo it.
00:16:20You're mine forever.
00:16:22Nobody is taking you from me.
00:16:24I smile.
00:16:24Good.
00:16:26I wake up to sunlight on his chest.
00:16:29He has been awake for a while.
00:16:31He is staring at the ceiling.
00:16:33His hand sits on my hip.
00:16:35He is afraid to move it.
00:16:38How long have you been up?
00:16:41Two hours.
00:16:43Why didn't you wake me?
00:16:45You were sleeping on me.
00:16:47I wasn't going to end that.
00:16:49I prop myself up on his sternum.
00:16:51The bite on my neck pulses with every heartbeat.
00:16:54Let me see.
00:16:55He sees me wince and sits up.
00:16:59He turns my head gently.
00:17:01His thumb traces around the mark.
00:17:03Never on it.
00:17:04It's scarred clean.
00:17:05It will show for the rest of your life.
00:17:08That's what I wanted.
00:17:10He studies me for a moment.
00:17:13You keep saying things like that.
00:17:15The words don't seem to cost you anything.
00:17:17They don't.
00:17:19They will.
00:17:20Your father will see the mark.
00:17:22Everyone you grew up around will see what bit you.
00:17:26I climb into his lap.
00:17:28I put his hand flat on my throat, over the bite.
00:17:33Then they see it.
00:17:35He shakes his head once.
00:17:37Sienna.
00:17:38Take it off.
00:17:39I'll buy you a scarf downstairs.
00:17:40Wear it until the bruise fades.
00:17:43Walk back into that house clean.
00:17:45Tell them I was a bad dream.
00:17:47You want me to hide you.
00:17:49I pull back to look at him.
00:17:51I want you to survive me.
00:17:52I take his other hand.
00:17:54I put it on the bite to press both his palms on my throat.
00:17:58What?
00:17:59Press, Lysaner.
00:18:00Hard enough to leave your prints next to your teeth.
00:18:03I can't.
00:18:04He doesn't press.
00:18:05Then stop telling me to take you off.
00:18:08His hands shake.
00:18:10He closes his eyes.
00:18:11He drops his forehead onto my collarbone.
00:18:14I feel him breathe out for the first time since he woke up.
00:18:19I order room service.
00:18:21Two of everything.
00:18:25Eat.
00:18:26Start with the eggs.
00:18:28He stares at the cart and doesn't move.
00:18:30He picks up a fork.
00:18:32He puts it back down.
00:18:34He picks up a piece of bacon with his fingers.
00:18:36He looks up, waiting for me to correct him.
00:18:39I pick up my own piece with my fingers, too.
00:18:41He almost smiles.
00:18:44My phone lights up on the carpet.
00:18:48Sully shifted.
00:18:50Tusks won't retract.
00:18:52Dad locked him in the wine cellar.
00:18:53Mom is crying.
00:18:54Where are you?
00:19:01Lysander reads it over my shoulder.
00:19:03His hand doesn't leave my throat.
00:19:07Get dressed.
00:19:08I guess we're going home.
00:19:12The estate gates are open.
00:19:14The Gar is at his post.
00:19:16He doesn't look at us.
00:19:17Stay outside, Marco.
00:19:19Whatever you hear, stay outside.
00:19:22He looks relieved and nods.
00:19:24I walk up the gravel drive with Lysander a step behind me.
00:19:28He doesn't speak.
00:19:29He is scanning every window.
00:19:31He is already counting exits.
00:19:33The foyer is wrecked.
00:19:35There's glass on the marble and a console table on its side.
00:19:40My mother is on the stairs with mascara down her face.
00:19:44Sullivan has my father against the wall.
00:19:46Six foot ten of him, with tusks fully out.
00:19:49His pupils are black to the edge.
00:19:52My father's feet are six inches off the marble.
00:19:54Cora is at the top of the stairs.
00:19:56She has her phone up.
00:19:57She is filming the whole thing.
00:20:00I walk into the middle of the foray.
00:20:02Sully.
00:20:04Put him down.
00:20:05Sullivan turns slowly.
00:20:07He doesn't recognize me for a beat.
00:20:10Then he does.
00:20:11And his nostrils flare.
00:20:13You smell like him, Sienna.
00:20:16Let my father down.
00:20:17I can fix this.
00:20:18I can wash it off.
00:20:20I can mark over it.
00:20:21Sullivan.
00:20:22Put.
00:20:23Him.
00:20:24Down.
00:20:24He drops my father.
00:20:26My father slides down the wall to the marble.
00:20:28Coughing, but alive.
00:20:30Sullivan crosses the foyer toward me.
00:20:33He stops three feet away.
00:20:34He cannot take the next step.
00:20:36Pure blood instinct won't let him cross the air between us.
00:20:39He has smelled the bond.
00:20:40He knows what it is.
00:20:41Lysander walks through the doorway behind him.
00:20:43Sullivan's whole body locks up.
00:20:45Lysander doesn't lift a hand.
00:20:47He walks to the middle of the foyer.
00:20:49He says four words in a language I don't know.
00:20:52No, no.
00:20:53Then Slilence drops to both knees.
00:20:57His tusks retract.
00:20:59The black in his eyes pulls back to gold.
00:21:02The foyer goes dead silent.
00:21:04My mother gasps from the stairs.
00:21:06Sully.
00:21:07What did he just say?
00:21:09Lysander answers in flat English.
00:21:12I told him my mother's name.
00:21:15My father lifts his head from the marble.
00:21:19Who is your mother's son?
00:21:20Lysander looks at me first.
00:21:22Then at my father.
00:21:24Her name was Mayerwin of the North Forest.
00:21:27My father stops breathing for a beat.
00:21:29My father pours brandy in his study.
00:21:32His hands shake.
00:21:33He doesn't drink any of it.
00:21:35Lysander stands by the door.
00:21:36He won't sit in this house yet.
00:21:38Marwyn of the North Forest married a human.
00:21:41That makes you highborn.
00:21:43And that makes Varric of House Drangon your uncle.
00:21:47Yes.
00:21:48My father sets the brandy down very carefully.
00:21:51Sienna.
00:21:53Do you understand what you walked into an alley and bought?
00:21:56A husband.
00:21:58A highborn heir.
00:22:00There are seven of them on this coast.
00:22:02That sounds like my problem to handle.
00:22:04That is everyone's problem now.
00:22:06Including mine.
00:22:08He looks at Lysander.
00:22:10Why were you in that alley?
00:22:16My uncle put me there fifteen years ago.
00:22:18He paid Orlof and sons twelve thousand pieces.
00:22:22They took my eye and snapped my task.
00:22:25They broke my horn.
00:22:26He didn't want anyone to buy me.
00:22:29No one was supposed to see whose blood I had.
00:22:32If I died young, my mother's lands passed to him.
00:22:36And you didn't die.
00:22:38He didn't die.
00:22:39He went through twelve cages.
00:22:40He walked out of an alley last night.
00:22:42He had my chain in his hand.
00:22:44My father is silent at his desk.
00:22:47And he bit you?
00:22:49After one night?
00:22:50Yes.
00:22:54Your grandmother died last month, son.
00:22:56Mayor Rowe's mother.
00:22:58The estate is in probate.
00:23:00I don't care about the estate.
00:23:02You should care.
00:23:03The day Varek learns Lysadar is alive.
00:23:06He is coming through that gate.
00:23:08Lysander speaks from the doorway.
00:23:09Quiet.
00:23:10He already knows.
00:23:11He felt the bond pulse at two a.m.
00:23:13My father closes his eyes.
00:23:15Then he is already on a plane.
00:23:17How long do we have?
00:23:18Six hours.
00:23:19Maybe less.
00:23:20I leave my father in the study.
00:23:22I find Korra in my bedroom.
00:23:24She is on my bed.
00:23:26She holds a phone in one hand.
00:23:28She holds a parring knife in the other.
00:23:30The blade is pointed at her own throat.
00:23:33Hi, sis.
00:23:34We need to talk.
00:23:38I sit down across from her.
00:23:41Put it down, Korra.
00:23:44You took Sully.
00:23:47He was never yours.
00:23:49Mom and dad bought him for you and he chose me anyway.
00:23:52You imprinted a 12-year-old animal who was scared and confused.
00:23:56That's grooming.
00:23:57That's not love.
00:23:59Send your monster husband away.
00:24:01Send him back tonight.
00:24:02Or I'll do it on your bed.
00:24:04I lean closer.
00:24:06You won't.
00:24:08Watch me.
00:24:10A girl who actually wanted to die wouldn't come here.
00:24:13Not to her sister's bedroom.
00:24:15She would do it in her own room.
00:24:17You came here because you need an audience.
00:24:19She blinks at me.
00:24:20I'm the audience.
00:24:22Drop the knife.
00:24:23Her hand shakes.
00:24:25I've watched you cry on cue for 18 months.
00:24:29I've watched you switch the tears off the second the camera leaves.
00:24:34Sis.
00:24:36This morning you filmed dad choking against a wall.
00:24:40You didn't drop the phone to help him.
00:24:41You narrate it.
00:24:43Her face cracks open.
00:24:45A girl who films her dad choking.
00:24:48She doesn't slit her throat over a husband.
00:24:50Drop it.
00:24:52She drops the knife.
00:24:54Then she starts crying.
00:24:56Real crying.
00:24:58Not the kind I'm used to from her.
00:24:59I hate that you came back.
00:25:01I had everything.
00:25:03I had dad and mom and Sully and this house.
00:25:05Then they found you and I became the second one.
00:25:08You had a stolen life.
00:25:09It was always going to end the day they found me.
00:25:13Sis, please.
00:25:14Switzerland.
00:25:15Friday.
00:25:17Lindenburg Academy.
00:25:18You don't come back until you're 21.
00:25:22She nods at me.
00:25:23She doesn't bargain.
00:25:24I pick the knife up off the bed's food.
00:25:26I walk out into the hall.
00:25:31Lysander is in the hallway.
00:25:33He has heard every word through the door.
00:25:35You didn't have to be that hard with her.
00:25:38I was 17 once.
00:25:40Nobody was soft with me back then.
00:25:43She isn't broken.
00:25:44She is spoiled.
00:25:45There's a difference.
00:25:46He opens his arms.
00:25:48I walk into him.
00:25:50I don't cry.
00:25:53You smell different right now.
00:25:55Just for one minute.
00:25:57Let me hold you.
00:25:58He holds me in the hallway.
00:26:00Behind him, down the corridor, my mother is standing in a doorway.
00:26:04She is watching us closely.
00:26:05She doesn't speak.
00:26:06She watches him put his hand on the back of my head.
00:26:10Then she goes back into her room and closes the door.
00:26:15The doorbell rings at 3 p.m.
00:26:20Lysanther straightens up.
00:26:21The softness leaves his body fast.
00:26:24Who is at the door, Sienna?
00:26:26I'm not expecting anyone.
00:26:28He checks the camera in the front hall.
00:26:30There are three orcs on the step.
00:26:33They wear iron coats with full tusks and unbroken horns.
00:26:39My uncle's men.
00:26:41Six hours, you said.
00:26:43He was closer than I thought.
00:26:45He moves me behind him.
00:26:48He opens the door himself.
00:26:50The oldest of the three steps in.
00:26:52Six foot eleven, in a silk-lined coat.
00:26:55He sees Lysadar.
00:26:57His eyes go to the broken horn and the dead eye.
00:26:59They go to the snap tusk.
00:27:01They go to the brand under the shirt.
00:27:03He smiles at him.
00:27:05Forgive the intrusion.
00:27:07I'm Lord Varric of House Drenimum.
00:27:10I've come to collect my nephew.
00:27:15He's married.
00:27:16To you.
00:27:17A human.
00:27:19I admire your nerve.
00:27:20His smile widens.
00:27:21But my nephew is not property you can keep.
00:27:24He belongs to the house until he is twenty-five.
00:27:28Get out of my father's house.
00:27:30Varric turns to Lysander.
00:27:32He says something quiet in the old language.
00:27:37Lysander's scar twitches.
00:27:39What did he say?
00:27:41He asked if I had taught the human pet to sit yet.
00:27:45My father grips the hall doorway hard.
00:27:48Lysander steps fully into the foyer.
00:27:50You paid Orlof and Zun's twelve thousand pieces.
00:27:54They put a knife in my eye when I was eight.
00:27:57Lysander!
00:27:57You paid them to snap my tusk.
00:28:00To break my horn.
00:28:01To brand me Mongrel 72.
00:28:04That is enough!
00:28:05You sold me to twelve cages over fifteen years.
00:28:08You're here today because Grandmother is dead.
00:28:11Her will makes me richer than you.
00:28:13Varric's smile sharpens.
00:28:14Your mother married beneath you.
00:28:16Your father was a stain on our bloodline.
00:28:19We did what was necessary.
00:28:23The three of them step toward me.
00:28:27Varric's hand comes up to strike.
00:28:29Lysander moves on him.
00:28:31The first hit cracks bone.
00:28:33The second is wetter.
00:28:35The third rattles the chandelier above us.
00:28:38My father grabs me and pulls me into the hallway.
00:28:41He clamps his hand over my mouth.
00:28:43Nineteen seconds is all it takes.
00:28:45The foyer doors come back open.
00:28:48Lysander stands in the frame.
00:28:51There's blood on his knuckles and a cut on his cheekbone.
00:28:54Three high-bend orcs lie on the marble.
00:28:56None of them are getting up soon.
00:28:58None of them are dead.
00:28:59My father starts to laugh.
00:29:01Quiet it then louder.
00:29:02Lysander turns to me.
00:29:03He looks wild.
00:29:04His hand is shaking hard.
00:29:10I take him to my bathroom.
00:29:12I lock the door behind us.
00:29:13I sit him on the closed lid of the toilet.
00:29:15I turn on the hot water in the sink.
00:29:17He doesn't speak.
00:29:18He stares at the tile between his feet.
00:29:20His hands won't stop shaking.
00:29:22I run a washcloth under the tap.
00:29:24I wring it out.
00:29:25I kneel in front of him on the bath mat.
00:29:27Give me your hands.
00:29:29He gives them to me.
00:29:31I wash them, knuckle by knuckle.
00:29:33The blood isn't his.
00:29:34It comes off easy.
00:29:36Look at me.
00:29:36He doesn't look up.
00:29:38Lysander, look at me.
00:29:40He looks at me, and then he breaks.
00:29:43His shoulders drop.
00:29:45He starts to cry.
00:29:46He puts his forehead against my collarbone, and his whole body shakes.
00:29:51I hold the back of his head.
00:29:53I let him fall apart.
00:29:54I was eight.
00:29:56I was eight years old.
00:29:58I tighten my hand in his hair.
00:30:01They told me my mother was on her way.
00:30:03They told me she was coming to take me home.
00:30:08I sat in that room for two hours waiting for her.
00:30:11Then the door opened, and it wasn't her.
00:30:13I'm here.
00:30:19My uncle paid them to do it.
00:30:21I was eight years old in a chair.
00:30:23He watched the whole thing!
00:30:25He is making a sound now that isn't quite crying.
00:30:29Tonight I broke his tusk on his own floor.
00:30:31It didn't fix anything.
00:30:32I thought it would fix something.
00:30:35It doesn't work like that.
00:30:38No, it doesn't.
00:30:41Hey.
00:30:42Look at me.
00:30:43He looks at me again.
00:30:45It doesn't fix what he did to you.
00:30:46Nothing does.
00:30:51But it tells him you grew up.
00:30:54He sold an eight-year-old.
00:30:56The eight-year-old came back with a wife.
00:31:03I don't deserve this.
00:31:05You keep saying that.
00:31:11Because it's true.
00:31:13Then we have a problem.
00:31:14I'm not leaving you.
00:31:16I take his face in both my hands.
00:31:18I kiss the dead side first.
00:31:20The scarred one.
00:31:22Where the knife went in.
00:31:23He flinches the way he did with the towel last night.
00:31:28I do it again.
00:31:29Slower this time.
00:31:31The third time he doesn't flint at all.
00:31:33He looks at me steady.
00:31:35I'm going to need you for the rest of my life.
00:31:37I'm telling you now.
00:31:38You can decide before this gets worse.
00:31:41Already decided.
00:31:422 a.m. last night.
00:31:43Get in the bath.
00:31:44He gets in the bath.
00:31:45He doesn't fit at all.
00:31:46His knees come up over the rim.
00:31:48His broken horn taps the tile above him.
00:31:51He laughs at himself.
00:31:53The sound is short and surprised.
00:31:55I haven't been in a bathtub since I was a child.
00:31:57You're in one now.
00:31:59I sit on the edge in my clothes.
00:32:01I dip the washcloth in the water.
00:32:04I start at his shoulder.
00:32:06I work down his arm and across his chest.
00:32:08I work over the long scar.
00:32:10It runs from his hairline to his collar.
00:32:12The brand on his ribs is the last thing I get to.
00:32:15The number 12 is burnt into him in black ink.
00:32:18The brand is older than the knife scar.
00:32:20The skin around it is still raised after 15 years.
00:32:23I put my harm flat on it.
00:32:24Tell me what this one is.
00:32:27Cage number.
00:32:2812th owner.
00:32:30They burn the new number over the old one each time.
00:32:33The first six are under it.
00:32:35You can feel the ridges if you press.
00:32:37I can feel them.
00:32:39I do press.
00:32:40And the others?
00:32:41He starts to tell me about them.
00:32:44He doesn't stop for an hour.
00:32:47There was the owner who fed him once a week.
00:32:50There was the one who used him in the pit.
00:32:53There was the one in Maryland with the daughter.
00:32:55She slipped him bread under the door at night.
00:32:57Her father caught her doing it.
00:32:58He never knew what happened to the daughter after that.
00:33:01I listen to him.
00:33:04I keep the water warm.
00:33:07I don't cry.
00:33:08He doesn't need that from me.
00:33:10When he is done,
00:33:12he sits very still.
00:33:14Sienna.
00:33:16Yes?
00:33:18Nobody has ever asked me what they were.
00:33:21Nobody is ever going to skip that question again.
00:33:24He looks at me.
00:33:25He is steady for the first time all day.
00:33:29I want you to see the rest of them too.
00:33:31I help him stand.
00:33:33He drips water on the bath mat.
00:33:35I dry him with a towel I fetched twice from the closet.
00:33:39I find every scar he tells me to find.
00:33:42Six are on his back.
00:33:43One sits under his jaw.
00:33:45One is on the inside of his thigh.
00:33:47He won't explain that one.
00:33:48I put my mouth on each of them.
00:33:51When I get to the brand,
00:33:52I stay there longer.
00:33:54This one we are going to put my name over.
00:33:59Sienna.
00:34:00Not removing it.
00:34:01Tattooing over it.
00:34:03I want my name on you,
00:34:04not his number.
00:34:05He doesn't say anything for a long time.
00:34:08All right.
00:34:10Tomorrow.
00:34:11After we deal with the estate.
00:34:14After my father makes a call.
00:34:16Tomorrow night we are going to a tattoo shop.
00:34:17We are covering that brand with my name.
00:34:23Tomorrow.
00:34:24I get up on my toes to reach his ear.
00:34:26And tonight you are going to sleep in a real bed.
00:34:30In this house.
00:34:31In my bed.
00:34:34Sullivan can hear it through the wall and I don't care.
00:34:37His eyes fill again.
00:34:39Different this time.
00:34:41We don't make it to my bed.
00:34:44We get as far as the bedroom door.
00:34:48He stops me in the doorway.
00:34:50He puts both hands flat on the frame.
00:34:53One hand on either side of my head.
00:34:55He looks down at me.
00:34:57I haven't had anyone since I was eight years old.
00:34:59I haven't been allowed to.
00:35:02I know that.
00:35:05I don't know how to do this slow.
00:35:09You did it last night.
00:35:11Last night.
00:35:12I was an animal you brought home from an alley.
00:35:15Tonight I'm in your house.
00:35:18I'm in your father's house.
00:35:23I keep waiting for someone to come tell me to leave.
00:35:26I take his hand off the door frame.
00:35:29I put it on my throat.
00:35:30Over the bite mark.
00:35:32Nobody is coming to tell you to leave.
00:35:34He lifts me.
00:35:36Both hands under my thighs.
00:35:38He walks me to the bed.
00:35:40He lays me down gently.
00:35:43Slow tonight.
00:35:46He undresses me without taking his eye off my face.
00:35:50Each button.
00:35:51And each strap.
00:35:53He folds the dress over the chair.
00:35:56And sets it down carefully.
00:35:58He kneels at the foot of the bed.
00:36:01Open for me.
00:36:02I open my knees for him.
00:36:04He kisses the inside of one.
00:36:06Then the inside of the other.
00:36:08He works his way up slowly.
00:36:09He keeps his eye on my face the whole time.
00:36:12When his mouth gets where it is going.
00:36:14I make a sound.
00:36:15A sound I have never made in this house.
00:36:17I make sure it carries through the wall.
00:36:20He laughs against me.
00:36:21He doesn't stop what he's doing.
00:36:23When I come.
00:36:24He climbs back up me.
00:36:25He pushes in slowly.
00:36:28Inch by inch.
00:36:30He watches my face the whole time.
00:36:32You're mine.
00:36:34Yours.
00:36:35He moves in long, slow strokes.
00:36:38The bed barely makes a sound.
00:36:40His weight rests on his forearms.
00:36:42His forehead presses against mine.
00:36:44I have you.
00:36:45Nobody is taking you from me.
00:36:47He stops moving.
00:36:48He looks at me.
00:36:49Say that again, Sienna.
00:36:51Nobody is taking you.
00:36:52Not your uncle and not the auction tier.
00:36:55He is with me now.
00:36:57He closes his eyes.
00:36:59He starts to move again.
00:37:01Slower and deeper than before.
00:37:03He puts his mouth back on the bite on my throat.
00:37:06He doesn't bite this time.
00:37:07He just rests his mouth on the mark and holds.
00:37:09When I come the second time, it is quiet between us.
00:37:13My whole body shakes under him and I don't make a sound.
00:37:17I just hold his face and watch him watch me.
00:37:20He follows me a minute later.
00:37:22He whispers something in the old language against my collarbone.
00:37:28What did you say?
00:37:29My mother's full name.
00:37:31I haven't said it to another person in 15 years.
00:37:37I wanted her to hear yours.
00:37:40I wake up to my mother in the doorway.
00:37:43She is in her dressing gown with no makeup on.
00:37:46She has been up all night.
00:37:48Leisner is asleep on his front beside me.
00:37:51One arm is thrown across my waist.
00:37:53The brand on his ribs is showing in the morning light.
00:37:55She sees the brand.
00:37:57She covers her mouth with both hands.
00:37:59I sit up slowly.
00:38:01I don't move his arm.
00:38:04Mom.
00:38:06Sienna.
00:38:07Come in or don't.
00:38:08Don't stand in the doorway.
00:38:10She comes in.
00:38:11She sits on the edge of the bed.
00:38:14She looks at his face.
00:38:15She looks at the bite on my neck.
00:38:18She looks back at his face again.
00:38:20Your father told me everything.
00:38:22The grandmother.
00:38:23The estate.
00:38:24The uncle who paid people to do this to him.
00:38:27And you brought him home this morning.
00:38:29After one night.
00:38:30Yes.
00:38:31She puts her hand on my knee through the blanket.
00:38:34I'm going to say something.
00:38:36You are going to let me say it.
00:38:38Go ahead.
00:38:39For 18 months I have watched the pure blood we bought you.
00:38:43I have watched him ignore you in this house.
00:38:45I told myself it was an adjustment.
00:38:47I told myself it was Cora's fault.
00:38:49I told myself it was the perfume.
00:38:52Mom.
00:38:53Let me finish.
00:38:55I am 60 years old.
00:38:57I don't know what to do with my face.
00:39:00I take her hand in mine.
00:39:02Tell me you're sorry.
00:39:05That's what you do with your face.
00:39:07She doesn't move for a while.
00:39:10I'm sorry.
00:39:11For Sullivan and for Cora.
00:39:13For all of it.
00:39:14For 18 years of looking for you and giving up.
00:39:17I am sorry, Sienna.
00:39:20I don't say anything back.
00:39:22She doesn't expect me to.
00:39:23She stands up from the bed.
00:39:26Your father is in the study.
00:39:28The lawyer is on his way over.
00:39:30The estate has to be moved out of Probodi today.
00:39:33Otherwise your uncle's brother files a claim by noon.
00:39:39Tell him I'm coming down.
00:39:42She stops at the door.
00:39:46She looks back at me.
00:39:49Sienna.
00:39:50What is it?
00:39:52Whatever this one is.
00:39:53Whatever they call him in their old language.
00:39:55He is the one I would have picked for you.
00:39:59If I had been the kind of mother who got to pick.
00:40:02She closes the door behind her.
00:40:06Lysener's arm tightens on my waist.
00:40:09He has been awake for the last minute.
00:40:12Your mother just apologized to you.
00:40:16She did.
00:40:17In English.
00:40:19I noticed.
00:40:20My mother would have liked her.
00:40:22I kiss his shoulder.
00:40:24The scarred one.
00:40:27Get up.
00:40:28The lawyer arrives in 20 minutes.
00:40:31The lawyer arrives at 9.
00:40:33He sets his briefcase on my father's desk.
00:40:37He is 60-something in a gray suit.
00:40:40He has been delivering complicated news for 30 years.
00:40:43Mr. Quinn.
00:40:44Miss Quinn.
00:40:46Lord Drenom.
00:40:47Lysender doesn't react to the title.
00:40:49He sits in the chair next to mine.
00:40:52His hand stays on the back of my chair.
00:40:54The estate of Lady Aelius Drenom was promoted in chambers last week.
00:41:00Her amended will was executed three days before her death.
00:41:04Three witnesses signed it.
00:41:07Read it to us.
00:41:09He reads it out loud.
00:41:10The estate of Lady Aelius Drenom passes in full.
00:41:14It goes to the human woman bonded to her grandson.
00:41:17To Lysendor of the North Forest.
00:41:19By name, Sienna Quinn.
00:41:21I sit there for a moment.
00:41:24The lawyer waits patiently.
00:41:28How much exactly?
00:41:31$840 million in assets.
00:41:34Lands in three districts.
00:41:36A coastal harbor.
00:41:37Two textile mills.
00:41:39A working mine.
00:41:41A house you will never need to set foot in.
00:41:44Not if you don't wish to.
00:41:46Why me?
00:41:47She didn't trust her own house to protect her grandson.
00:41:51She made you the shield instead.
00:41:54She never met me.
00:41:56She had three people watching you for nine months.
00:42:00She knew exactly who she was leaving it to.
00:42:03Lysander hasn't moved during any of this.
00:42:05I turned to him.
00:42:07Did you know about this?
00:42:09No, I didn't.
00:42:10Did you suspect?
00:42:11I suspected she had someone watching me.
00:42:14I didn't know it was you.
00:42:16I didn't know it was already done.
00:42:19I look at the lawyer.
00:42:21Can I refuse it?
00:42:23You can.
00:42:24The estate then passes to the next eligible heir.
00:42:27Your husband's uncle.
00:42:28Lord Varric.
00:42:30I look at Lysanium.
00:42:33I'm not refusing it.
00:42:37No.
00:42:39It's not for me.
00:42:41It's for the boy in the chair.
00:42:48Yes.
00:42:51I sign the papers.
00:42:52There are 43 pages of them.
00:42:56The lawyer's pen runs out halfway through.
00:42:59My father gives him a new one.
00:43:02When it is done, the lawyer stands up.
00:43:06He bows slightly to be polite.
00:43:08Lady Drenum.
00:43:10Don't call me that yet.
00:43:12It is the name on the deed now, Mom.
00:43:14He leaves the study.
00:43:17My father pours himself the Berndi he didn't drink yesterday.
00:43:21He drinks it down now.
00:43:24Sienna.
00:43:25Dad.
00:43:27I gave you a pureblood for your birthday.
00:43:29He was the most expensive thing in this house.
00:43:33I remember.
00:43:34He is now the fourth most expensive thing in this house.
00:43:39And that is only counting your husband.
00:43:43The estate is the first.
00:43:46He looks at At-Lysal either.
00:43:49Sotheby's take Sullivan tomorrow.
00:43:53Open auction.
00:43:54No reserve.
00:43:56Dad.
00:43:56Not the auction.
00:43:58There's a retired doctor in Maine.
00:44:01He works with show orcs who couldn't adjust.
00:44:04Sullivan is going to relearn how to be a person.
00:44:06Without a master.
00:44:07My father studies my face.
00:44:10You are kinder than I would be in your place.
00:44:14I'm not kind.
00:44:16I'm just done with all of it.
00:44:20He nods.
00:44:21He picks up the phone to make the call.
00:44:26Six months later, the doctor in Maine writes back.
00:44:29Sullivan is feeding his feed himself.
00:44:31He answers to his own name now.
00:44:34Lysander squeezes my hand under the desk.
00:44:37I squeeze back.
00:44:39Outside the study window,
00:44:42Cora is on the lawn with her suitcase.
00:44:46Cora is in the garden when I find her.
00:44:49Her suitcase is open on the lawn.
00:44:51The housekeeper is folding sweaters into it carefully.
00:44:55Cora is sitting on the stone bench.
00:44:57Her arms are wrapped around her knees.
00:44:59She is 17 years old.
00:45:02She looks 12.
00:45:04I leave on Friday.
00:45:06I know.
00:45:07I packed half of this myself.
00:45:09I saw you did.
00:45:14I sit down next to her on the bench.
00:45:16Sis.
00:45:19What is it?
00:45:20I saw you and him in the hallway last night.
00:45:23And?
00:45:25He put his hand on the back of your head.
00:45:28The way Sully puts his hand on mine when I'm crying.
00:45:32Cora.
00:45:33That isn't what I want to say.
00:45:35What I want to say is this.
00:45:36That was the first time in 18 months.
00:45:39The first time I have seen someone touch you like a person.
00:45:42Mom and Dad don't ever touch you.
00:45:45Sully doesn't touch you.
00:45:46I throw things at you.
00:45:48You don't have anybody, sis.
00:45:53I have him now.
00:45:54That's exactly what I'm saying.
00:45:56She turns on the bench to face me.
00:45:59I have been telling myself this story for two years.
00:46:03The story is that you stole my life from me.
00:46:06You came in.
00:46:07You pushed me out of every spot I had.
00:46:09Maybe that's true, a little.
00:46:13But I watched you walk into the foyer yesterday.
00:46:16Your hair was unwashed.
00:46:18There was a bite mark on your throat.
00:46:19A seven-foot orc walked in me behind you.
00:46:22And I realized something.
00:46:24What?
00:46:26You weren't pushing me out.
00:46:28You were finally walking in.
00:46:30You have been outside this family the entire time.
00:46:33I just couldn't see it before.
00:46:35I am quiet for a long moment.
00:46:37I'm not asking you to forgive me.
00:46:39I'm asking you to let me write to you.
00:46:41Every Sunday.
00:46:43Handwritten letters.
00:46:45Mailed at the end of every month.
00:46:49Yes.
00:46:50I'll write back to one in three.
00:46:52Not when you're performing.
00:46:54When you stop performing.
00:46:56Deal.
00:46:57She wipes her face with the back of her hand.
00:47:00He is going to be your husband for real, isn't he?
00:47:04He already is.
00:47:06We're doing the rest of the paperwork next week.
00:47:08Can I come to the wedding?
00:47:10Yes.
00:47:11Even from Switzerland?
00:47:13We'll fly you back for the day.
00:47:15You can come back at Christmas every year, too.
00:47:19Lindenburg until 21.
00:47:21Then we see who you've become.
00:47:23She nods at that.
00:47:25She puts her head on my shoulder.
00:47:28She hasn't done that since she was 11.
00:47:31I remember the exact date.
00:47:38Sis.
00:47:40He loves you.
00:47:42I know that.
00:47:43He loves you in a way Sully never loved me.
00:47:46I figured it out this morning.
00:47:48How did you figure it out?
00:47:51Sully loved being mine.
00:47:54My sitter loves you.
00:47:55She gets up from the bench.
00:47:57She goes back to her suitcase.
00:47:59I sit there a moment longer.
00:48:02The housekeeper folds another sweater.
00:48:04The sun moves on the lawn.
00:48:07Tonight, Lysander and I have a tattoo to get.
00:48:12That night, Lysander and I drive into the city.
00:48:15We go to a tattoo shop on the Lower East Side.
00:48:18The artist is a woman in her 50s.
00:48:21Half her face is tattooed already.
00:48:23She doesn't blink at his size or at his face.
00:48:26She says only one thing.
00:48:28Show me what we're covering.
00:48:30He lifts his shirt.
00:48:33The brand is right there.
00:48:35The number 12.
00:48:36The raised ridges of the six older numbers are visible underneath.
00:48:40What do you want to put over it?
00:48:42Her name.
00:48:43She looks over at me.
00:48:45She doesn't ask if I am sure about this.
00:48:49What font.
00:48:51Whatever he wants.
00:48:53I want to be able to read it from across a room.
00:48:56She draws something on tracing paper.
00:48:58She holds the paper up to his ribs.
00:49:01The word reads Sienna in tall block letters.
00:49:04Tall enough to swallow the brand whole.
00:49:07Tall enough to swallow the six numbers underneath it.
00:49:09That one.
00:49:11She does the work.
00:49:13It takes four hours.
00:49:16He doesn't make a single sound the whole time.
00:49:19He keeps his eyes on me.
00:49:20I sit on a stool beside the table.
00:49:23I hold his hand.
00:49:25I don't let go once.
00:49:27When she is finished, she wipes him down.
00:49:30She wraps the ribs in plastic.
00:49:33She steps back to look.
00:49:35Lord Draynon.
00:49:36I don't work on Highborn.
00:49:38I have never been asked to.
00:49:40Why me tonight?
00:49:41Because you don't work on Highborn.
00:49:44Because you wouldn't have done this for my uncle.
00:49:46Because this is not a Drenum tattoo.
00:49:49She nods slowly.
00:49:51She understands what he means.
00:49:53He sits up on the table.
00:49:55He looks down at his own side.
00:49:58The word Sienna sits under the plastic.
00:50:00The skin is red around the edges and starting to scab over.
00:50:04The brand is gone.
00:50:05The six numbers under it are gone.
00:50:07Everything is gone except my name on him.
00:50:09He puts his hand flat over it.
00:50:12His eyes fill with tears.
00:50:14You did it.
00:50:15I told you I would.
00:50:19Your name is on me now.
00:50:21The number is gone.
00:50:23They do.
00:50:24He pays the artist three times what she charged him.
00:50:28She doesn't argue with that.
00:50:30In the car, he keeps his hand over the tattoo.
00:50:33The whole way home.
00:50:35Sienna.
00:50:37What is it?
00:50:38My grandmother left you $840 million.
00:50:43I'm aware of that.
00:50:45And you took me to a tattoo shop in a strip mall.
00:50:48I had to keep my promise to you.
00:50:51He laughs quietly at that.
00:50:54Will you marry me, Sienna?
00:50:56The legal kind, with the paper and the witnesses.
00:51:00So when somebody asks me what I am, my answer doesn't start with the word mongrel.
00:51:08Yes.
00:51:10When?
00:51:11Next Saturday.
00:51:12The garden.
00:51:14Cora flies back for the day.
00:51:16My father walks me out.
00:51:18And your mother?
00:51:20My mother is doing my hair.
00:51:23She told me this morning.
00:51:24I didn't even ask her.
00:51:27He kisses my hand.
00:51:29The one I am still holding his with.
00:51:32Saturday is six days away.
00:51:35Six days to plan a wedding.
00:51:38It is Saturday in the garden behind the house.
00:51:41There are 40 chairs set out.
00:51:43And white ribbon on every one.
00:51:46The housekeeper has been crying since dawn for reasons he won't explain.
00:51:51My mother does my hair on the back porch.
00:51:53She works in silence for a long time.
00:51:58Your grandmother had this hair.
00:52:00I never told you.
00:52:02I never met her.
00:52:04No, you didn't.
00:52:06She would have liked you.
00:52:08She would have hated him.
00:52:11Mom.
00:52:12That is a compliment.
00:52:14The women in my family always hated the right men.
00:52:18She secures the last pin.
00:52:20She steps back from the mirror.
00:52:23You look like her, Sienna.
00:52:25You haven't said that before.
00:52:28I haven't been able to say it.
00:52:31She sets the brush down.
00:52:34I'm going to sit in the front row.
00:52:36I am going to cry.
00:52:37Don't look at me.
00:52:38Look at him.
00:52:40I was already going to.
00:52:42She kisses the top of my head.
00:52:44She walks down to the garden.
00:52:46Cora comes in wearing a white dress.
00:52:48She is the maid of honor.
00:52:50We didn't announce this.
00:52:52She just showed up in it.
00:52:54He's already there, sis.
00:52:56I can see him through the window.
00:52:59He is in a black coat with a dark red lining.
00:53:02Those are the North Forest colors.
00:53:04His mother's seal is on the collar.
00:53:06The lawyer in Geneva sent it over.
00:53:10He is standing at the end of the garden in the sun.
00:53:13His eyes are closed.
00:53:15Cora hands me the bouquet.
00:53:16Don't trip, sis.
00:53:19I won't trip.
00:53:21My father is in the doorway behind us.
00:53:24He has stopped shaking these last few days.
00:53:27Sweetheart.
00:53:29Daddy.
00:53:30I gave you a pure blood for your 22nd birthday.
00:53:36I remember.
00:53:37I want to give you something today.
00:53:40Something I should have given you back then.
00:53:43Permission to walk out of any room.
00:53:46Any room you don't want to be in.
00:53:49You're a little late on that, dad.
00:53:52I know.
00:53:53Take it anyway.
00:53:55He puts my hand on his arm.
00:53:56He walks me down the aisle.
00:53:59Lysander opens his eyes.
00:54:01He has been waiting since 10 in the morning.
00:54:03He isn't going to miss a single step now.
00:54:07My father puts my hand in his hand.
00:54:10Take care of her, son.
00:54:11The first 18 years, I didn't.
00:54:14Yes, sir.
00:54:16The priest is the chaplain from our parish church.
00:54:18He reads in English.
00:54:21Lysander asked him for this.
00:54:22He says the vows.
00:54:24I say the vows back.
00:54:25The priest closes the book.
00:54:27There is one tradition I have been asked to honor.
00:54:30Lord Drenjan, speak the name your mother gave you.
00:54:34Loud enough for the garden to hear.
00:54:37Lysander doesn't turn to face the chairs.
00:54:39He turns to face me instead.
00:54:42He says it.
00:54:44Three syllables in the old language.
00:54:47The chairs are quiet for a beat.
00:54:49Then 40 people say it back in two languages at once.
00:54:52My parents, Cora, the housekeeper and the lawyer,
00:54:55the tattoo artist in the back row.
00:54:57The priest turns to me.
00:54:58Lady Drennaman, there is no human tradition for this part.
00:55:03Say what you wish to say.
00:55:05I look out at the chairs and speak up.
00:55:09My name is Sienna Drenwulf.
00:55:11I bought him in an alley with cash.
00:55:13He's mine now.
00:55:15The garden laughs at that.
00:55:17Lysander does not.
00:55:19His eyes are wet.
00:55:21He leans down to me.
00:55:23He kisses my face first.
00:55:26Then my mouth.
00:55:27The priest closes the book.
00:55:29It was an intimate reception.
00:55:32Forty chairs were placed around round tables.
00:55:34At eight o'clock, the garden was lit up with lanterns.
00:55:39My father stands first.
00:55:40He taps his glass with a fork.
00:55:43I had a speech written.
00:55:45I'm not going to give it tonight.
00:55:46I'm going to say one thing instead.
00:55:49He looks at Lysander.
00:55:51My daughter ate breakfast alone in this house for 18 months.
00:55:55She doesn't anymore.
00:55:57That's because of you.
00:56:00Sit down.
00:56:01Eat the cake.
00:56:04Lysander sits back down.
00:56:06Cora stands up next.
00:56:08She is shaking.
00:56:09She has never given a speech.
00:56:12My sister came home at 23.
00:56:15The day she walked through the door,
00:56:17I threw a butter knife at her head.
00:56:19I missed by an inch.
00:56:20I have spent two years wishing I had not missed.
00:56:24The garden goes very still.
00:56:27I'm leaving for Switzerland on Tuesday.
00:56:30I am going to be a different person when I come back.
00:56:34Not because she sent me away.
00:56:37Because she came and found me crying last week.
00:56:40And she didn't have to.
00:56:41I look up at her.
00:56:43My father has been talking to her about more than I knew.
00:56:48I want her husband to know something too.
00:56:51You take care of her.
00:56:53That's all I'm asking.
00:56:56For as long as you walk.
00:56:58Lysander stands.
00:56:59He bows slightly to her.
00:57:03Yes.
00:57:04She sits down crying.
00:57:06My mother takes her hand under the table.
00:57:09Later, there is dancing.
00:57:12Lysander has never been allowed to dance.
00:57:15The first thing he does is step on my foot.
00:57:18I'm sorry, Sienna.
00:57:19That was your foot.
00:57:21Try again.
00:57:22He tries again.
00:57:24He steps on my foot again.
00:57:28I am terrible at this.
00:57:30You are terrible.
00:57:32Keep going anyway.
00:57:34By the fifth song, he isn't terrible anymore.
00:57:36He has stopped looking down at his feet.
00:57:40My mother dances with my father.
00:57:43They haven't danced together in a decade.
00:57:45He cries on her shoulder, quietly.
00:57:48She pretends not to notice.
00:57:50At eleven, I find Lysander at the edge of the garden.
00:57:53He has two glasses of champagne.
00:57:58For me?
00:57:59For you.
00:58:00I take one.
00:58:01We sit on the stone bench, where Cora and I sat last week.
00:58:06Lady Drennaman.
00:58:08Don't start with that.
00:58:09You'll have to get used to it eventually.
00:58:11Just not tonight.
00:58:13We are quiet together for a moment.
00:58:18I have a question, Sienna.
00:58:20I've been holding it since the bath.
00:58:22Ask me anything.
00:58:24The first night in the alley, the traitor said I was already ruined.
00:58:28Why did you say yes?
00:58:30I told you.
00:58:31Because nobody else would.
00:58:33Is that the whole answer?
00:58:34No, it isn't.
00:58:38Tell me the rest.
00:58:40I thought you were like me.
00:58:42That we could be together.
00:58:45He puts down his glass.
00:58:47Sienna.
00:58:49Since the first time I held you, I have been afraid you would not stay.
00:58:52I am staying.
00:58:55He picks me up off the bench.
00:58:58He carries me through the garden to the back door.
00:59:00The garden is empty by now.
00:59:02The lanterns are still on.
00:59:05Take me upstairs, husband.
00:59:08Yes.
00:59:10We are in our bedroom.
00:59:12The fire is in the hearth.
00:59:14The door is closed behind us.
00:59:16He sets me down on the rug.
00:59:18He kneels down in front of me.
00:59:20He undoes the dress slowly, the same way he did it the first night in this house.
00:59:26He stops when the bodice falls.
00:59:28I need to tell you something before tonight starts.
00:59:33I sit down on the rug with him.
00:59:35Tell me what it is.
00:59:37I'm going to wake up tomorrow and you'll still be here.
00:59:39And the day after.
00:59:41I didn't believe that until today.
00:59:45What changed today?
00:59:47Forty men in your garden called out my mother's name.
00:59:50You stood before them all.
00:59:54You said you bought me from an alley.
00:59:56You said it loudly.
00:59:58He puts his hand over the tattoo on his ribs.
01:00:01Your name is on me.
01:00:04Everyone in that garden knows it.
01:00:07They do.
01:00:09He leans his forehead against mine.
01:00:12I'm yours.
01:00:14You're mine.
01:00:15I press my forehead back against his.
01:00:19I pull him down to the rug with me.
01:00:21I put my mouth on the tattoo.
01:00:26Lay back for me.
01:00:29He lays back on the rug.
01:00:32I want to look at you tonight.
01:00:35Look at me then.
01:00:37I sit on his hips.
01:00:39I put his hands on my waist.
01:00:41I move slow.
01:00:43He watches me the whole time.
01:00:46Neither of us is in a hurry.
01:00:47We have time now.
01:00:50When I come, he holds me through it.
01:00:55He doesn't look away once.
01:00:57He follows me a minute later.
01:01:00He sits up afterward.
01:01:02He pulls me against his chest.
01:01:04He puts his mouth on the bite on my throat.
01:01:06The scar is healed now.
01:01:08He kisses it instead of biting it.
01:01:12I love you, Sienna Drennan.
01:01:15I love you too, Lysander.
01:01:17He pulls the blanket down over us.
01:01:22The fire is still going in the hearth.
01:01:27He falls asleep on his back with his hand over the tattoo.
01:01:30His other hand stays on my hip.
01:01:33I lie awake for a few minutes, listening to him breathe steady.
01:01:3918 months ago I ate breakfast alone.
01:01:42Three weeks ago I bought a man in an alley.
01:01:46Tonight my husband is asleep on the rug.
01:01:50My name is on his ribs.
01:01:52Best money I ever spent.
01:01:54I close my eyes and sleep.
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