My smile deepened almost imperceptibly, the expression slow and private, like something unfolding for my own amusement rather than anyone else's benefit.
Submission.
Beautiful when done properly.
For a moment longer he allowed the silence to remain exactly as it was refreshly thick with humiliation, grief, and the suffocating weight of unspoken fear. The entire room seemed suspended around Sophia's trembling form, every servant standing unnaturally still as though movement itself might provoke me again.
Then, at last, Jacob exhaled softly through his nose.
"Enough."
The single word loosened something invisible inside the room. Not relief exactly ,no one here would ever be foolish enough to relax completely in my presence but the sharpest edge of the tension dulled enough for people to breathe again. I rose smoothly from the chair, every movement elegant in a way that made my cruelty feel even more dangerous. I slowly adjusted the cuff of my sleeve with idle precision before his grey gaze shifted toward Jennie.
"You'll accompany me into town later."
The abruptness of it startled her. One moment Sophia had been sobbing against the marble floor, and the next I was speaking about leaving the estate as though nothing significant had happened at all.
Well, nothing significant had happen, Sophia head isn't rolling beside me.
Jennie blinked. "Into town…?"
"There are matters requiring my attention," I replied coldly . "Miss Lily will prepare you."
At the sound of her name, Miss Lily lowered her head immediately. "Yes, Young Master."
Jennie hesitated. The shock on her face was too visible
Her eyes drifted instinctively back toward Sophia before she could stop herself.
Sophia had not moved.
She still knelt where she had collapsed, head bowed low enough for dark strands of hair to spill across her face like a curtain. Her shoulders no longer shook openly, but the unnatural stillness somehow looked worse now, as though all the emotion had frozen somewhere beneath her skin instead.The servants standing along the walls continued avoiding direct eye contact with her. No one wanted to witness the remains of someone else's humiliation too closely.
Something twisted painfully inside Jennie's chest.
I noticed her regret and hurt immediately.
"She'll recover," I said more lighter than intended , I couldn't hide my amusement threading lazily through my voice. "Sophia always does. You needn't look so distressed."
Heat rushed beneath Jennie's skin at being read so effortlessly.
"I wasn't"
"You were."
The interruption came soft and certain.
Jennie's lips parted briefly before closing again. There was no point arguing with me once I'd already seen through her ,
His gaze lingered on her for another moment, thoughtful and faintly entertained, before he stepped past Sophia entirely as though she no longer held his interest.
"Go prepare yourselves."
No one questioned the dismissal
Miss Lily touched Jennie's arm gently, her fingers cool and careful against her sleeve, guiding her toward the doors before she could hesitate again. Jennie followed automatically, though her pace slowed near the entrance.
She looked back once but weirdly not at Sophia but me.
Sophia still had not lifted her head the image lodged itself somewhere deep beneath Jennie's ribs.
Then the doors closed behind them.The heavy sound echoed through the corridor like the final note of something irreversible.
For several seconds neither woman spoke. The mansion stretched endlessly around them in pale silence, long marble corridors bathed in soft afternoon light filtering through towering windows. Their footsteps echoed quietly against the polished floor, strangely loud in the emptiness.Jennie clasped her hands tightly together as they walked, fingers pressing hard enough to ache.
"What's going to happen to her?" she asked at last, unable to keep the question inside herself any longer.
Miss Lily glanced toward her carefully. "To Sophia?"
Jennie nodded.
Miss Lily inhaled softly before answering. "If Young Master says the matter is finished… then officially it is."
Officially.
The word settled uneasily in Jennie's stomach.
"That doesn't sound reassuring."
A faint shadow crossed Miss Lily's expression before disappearing again. "It wasn't meant to."
Jennie turned toward her fully then, surprised by the honesty.
Miss Lily kept her gaze forward as they continued walking, her posture graceful even in silence.
"Sophia is proud," she said quietly after a moment. "Prouder than most people realize. What happened in there…" Her voice softened slightly. "She will remember it for a very long time."
Jennie swallowed hard.
"She looked destroyed."
"She was."
The bluntness of the answer stole the remaining air from Jennie's lungs.
Ahead of them, some staff moved quietly through distant hallways carrying folded linens and trays for the evening meal. The estate continued breathing around them as though nothing unusual had happened at all.
That somehow felt cruelest of all.Jennie stared down at her hands.
"I didn't mean for that to happen."
"I know."
Miss Lily's gentleness only deepened the guilt curling inside her chest.
Jennie released a shaky breath. "I thought apologizing would be kinder than letting him punish her."
"It was kinder."
Jennie stopped walking so suddenly her skirts shifted around her ankles.Miss Lily halted a step ahead before turning back toward her.
"Kinder?" Jennie repeated softly, almost incredulous. "She looked at me like she hated me."
For a moment Miss Lily simply studied her, something complicated flickering briefly behind her composed expression.
"She probably does," she admitted quietly.
Jennie stared at her in disbelief. "You say that so easily."
"Because hatred is survivable."
The answer came almost immediately.
Miss Lily's eyes lowered briefly before lifting again.
"What Young Master might have done instead…" Her voice trailed softly away. "Not everyone survives that."
A cold heaviness settled beneath Jennie's ribs.
The breeze drifting through the open arches stirred the curtains around them, carrying the faint scent of rain and distant flowers from the estate gardens below. Somewhere farther inside the mansion came the muffled sound of servants preparing for evening, dishes clinking softly against silver trays.Everything sounded painfully normal.
Meanwhile Sophia remained somewhere behind those closed doors, still kneeling on cold marble with her pride shattered before a smaller audience.
Jennie's throat tightened
"Has he done worse before?"
Miss Lily's silence hesitated.
Then quietly:
"Yes."
Jennie looked almost afraid to continue. "To Sophia?"
A pause.
"To many people."
The hallway suddenly felt colder than before.Miss Lily softened slightly at the expression crossing Jennie's face.
"You stopped him today," she said gently. "Whether Sophia can appreciate that or not is another matter.
Jennie shook her head faintly, eyes lowering again.
"She cried because of me."
"No," Miss Lily corrected softly. "Sophia cried because Young Master cornered her until there was no dignity left to protect. You were simply placed in the middle of it…. An unfortunate chess piece "
"But I still chose it."
"Yes," Miss Lily admitted.
The honesty hurt far more than comfort would have.Miss Lily stepped closer then, her voice lowering almost tenderly.
"But Jennie… if you had refused to choose, Young Master would have chosen himself."
Jennie fell silent immediately.
Because for the first time since arriving at the estate, she truly understood how terrifying that possibility was.They resumed walking slowly after that.By the time they reached Jennie's room, the knot inside her chest had only tightened further.
Miss Lily pushed the door open gently, allowing warm golden light from inside to spill across the corridor.
"You should change before Young Master arrives,in your wardrobe you have clothes I labeled for town" she said softly.
Jennie stepped inside automatically, but her thoughts remained elsewhere entirely.
Back in that room.
On the marble floor.
Beneath Sophia's eyes.
And the hatred still burning inside them.