Chapter 5: Tessa
The walk from the servants’ quarters to the main living room had never felt longer for Asteria. Every step sent a jolt of pain through her bruised body, and she could feel the swelling on her face pulsing with each heartbeat.
She had tried to keep her head down, to hide the discoloration blooming across her cheek, but there was no hiding the way she limped, no concealing the tremble in her hands.
The family assistant, a tall man with cold eyes who never bothered to learn her name, walked ahead of her without looking back. He didn’t slow his pace, didn’t offer an arm to steady her. Asteria had long stopped expecting such courtesies from anyone in the Auclair household.
When they finally reached the living room, the assistant stepped aside and gestured for her to enter. "Asteria is here, Mr. Auclair."
The room was exactly as she remembered it from the last time she had been summoned—the polished wooden floors that reflected the chandelier’s light, the expensive leather chairs, and the massive fireplace that crackled even though the evening wasn’t particularly cold.
But none of that mattered. What mattered was the man sitting in the largest sofa, a glass of whiskey in his hand, looking at her like she was nothing more than an inconvenience.
William Auclair didn’t stand. He barely even turned his head. His eyes swept over her swollen face and limping form with an expression that hovered somewhere between annoyance and disgust. Then he let out a sound—a sharp click of his tongue against his teeth.
"Tsk... You’re lucky that we had a letter from the Eisenthurns."
His voice was flat, but Asteria caught the undertone of something she couldn’t name. It wasn’t happiness. If anything, he sounded almost disappointed, like a gambler who had been expecting a different card to be dealt.
He finally set down his glass and reached for a piece of paper on the side table—a letter with an elegant seal that Asteria recognized even from a distance. The Eisenthurn family crest.
She had seen it once before, years ago, when she had been younger and more foolish and had dared to dream about things she had no right to dream about.
"Keres Eisenthurn herself sent me a letter," William continued, his fingers tapping against the paper. "Requesting you prepare yourself."
The name hit Asteria like a physical blow.
Keres.
The world seemed to tilt around her. Her already unsteady legs threatened to give out completely, and she had to press her palms against her thighs to stop them from shaking so visibly.
The name echoed in her head, bouncing off the walls of her skull like a stone dropped into an empty well. She hadn’t heard that name spoken aloud in so long, hadn’t allowed herself to think it, to breathe it, or taste it on her tongue.
But now it was here, filling the room, filling her chest, making it hard to breathe.
"K-Keres~" Asteria tried to speak the name, but it came out strange and broken, barely a whisper. The weight of it pressed down on her shoulders, a burden that no one else could possibly understand.
William heaved a sigh, long and dramatic, as if she was the one inconveniencing him. "I was hoping she’d be sending a letter to our precious Emmaline. That would have made sense. That would have been useful." He shook his head slowly. "But instead, she sent the invitation to you."
Asteria’s blood ran cold. Invitation?
Before she could process what that meant, William stood up from his chair. The movement was slow, deliberate, and each step he took toward her made Asteria feel smaller and smaller until she was certain she would simply crumple into nothing.
He towered over her, his shadow swallowing her whole, and she had to crane her neck just to keep his face in view.
"What have you done, huh?" His voice was low at first, almost conversational, and that was somehow more terrifying than if he had started shouting immediately.
"Did you seduce her? Is that it? Did you spread your legs for to that woman and now she has come calling?"
Asteria’s eyes went wide with horror. "N-No! I would never—"
"Then what?" William’s voice rose, sharp and cutting. "Did you offend her? Did your pathetic existence somehow manage to piss off one of the most powerful families in the city? Is that why she’s sending letters to my house, demanding your presence?"
"P-Please~ N-No~ I... I didn’t d-do anything, sir." Asteria’s voice cracked as tears spilled down her swollen cheeks. Her body remembered. It always remembered. The punishments, the beatings, the days locked in the closet without food or water.
Her muscles trembled with the memory, and she shook her head frantically, desperately, hoping that this time her pleas would be enough. "P-Please believe me. Please~"
She was crying openly now, ugly sobs that wracked her entire body and made her bruises ache even more. She couldn’t help it. She had spent years learning to be silent, to be invisible, to swallow her tears before they could fall, but the mention of that name had broken something inside her.
Or perhaps it had simply reminded her that there had been a time when she had been brave enough to hope, and look where that had gotten her.
William watched her cry with an expression of mild disgust, like he was observing a bug that had been unfortunate enough to crawl across his floor. Then he smiled—a thin, cruel smile that never reached his eyes.
"Heh! Make sure, Asteria. Because if I hear one mistake you did to make Ms. Eisenthurn angry, I will do what I told you, you understand?" He let the threat hang in the air, heavy and suffocating.
"For now, I’m going to make sure to find you a suitable husband. Go and fix yourself. I am setting you up on a luxurious date on the third week of this month."
Behind him, the assistant silently poured another glass of whiskey, the amber liquid glugging into the crystal like it was the most normal thing in the world.
"And be grateful I am doing this for you," William added, his voice dripping with contempt. "You piece of shit."
Asteria’s mind was reeling. A husband? A date? She couldn’t process any of it. All she could do was nod, bow, and let her body move through the motions that had been drilled into her over years of servitude. "Y-yes, sir. T-Thank you."
"Get the fuck out of here!" William sneered, waving his hand dismissively as he turned back to his whiskey.
Asteria didn’t need to be told twice. She limped out of the room as fast as her broken body would allow, her vision blurred with tears, her chest heaving with silent sobs. She didn’t stop until she was back in the safety of the servants’ corridor, where she pressed her back against the cold stone wall and slid down until she was sitting on the floor, her knees pulled up to her chest.
Keres Eisenthurn.
What does she want now?
Asteria didn’t have the answer. All she had was the fear coiling in her stomach and the throbbing pain in her face and the knowledge that no matter what happened next, she would be the one to bear the consequences.
~~~•••~~~
Back in the living room, the assistant lingered by the door, watching William drain his whiskey in one long swallow.
"Sir, are you sure that setting her up on a blind date won’t anger Ms. Keres?" the assistant asked carefully, his voice neutral. "The letter clearly states—"
"Nobody gives a fuck about the letter." William cut him off sharply, slamming his glass down on the table. "If she doesn’t find Asteria interesting, she would just throw her away too. Besides no one would bother picking up garbage like her anyway. Just set up the damn date and do your fucking job." He leaned back in his chair, a smug smile spreading across his face. "In the end, Asteria will be the one to take the blame."
The assistant nodded once, made a note on his tablet, and said nothing more. He had learned long ago that William Auclair didn’t pay him for his opinions.
~~~•••~~~
Later that night, the Eisenthurn mansion was alive with tension.
Keres burst through the front doors at a near run, her shoes echoing against the marble floors. She had been in the middle of reviewing quarterly reports when her phone had started buzzing with frantic calls from her mother, and the distress in Faye’s voice had made her drop everything and rush home.
She had imagined all sorts of scenarios on the drive over.
An intruder. A fire. Someone threatening her parents.
Her heart had raced the entire way, her mind jumping to the worst possible conclusions.
But when she burst into the main hall and found both of her parents standing there—perfectly fine, perfectly healthy, not a single hair out of place—her fear rapidly curdled into frustration.
"Mom? Dad? What’s going on?" Keres demanded, her voice sharper than she intended. "You made it sound like the house was burning down."
Faye rushed toward her daughter immediately, her hands reaching out to grasp Keres’s arms.
"Keres, why not you meet Asteria tomorrow?"
Keres blinked. Of all the things she had expected her mother to say, that was not one of them. "What?" She pulled back slightly, frowning. "W-Why?"
"Because she’s being maltreated!" Faye’s voice rose with agitation. "I got a phone text from my spy in the Auclair family. She said that Asteria is being abused—"
"Mom!" Keres threw her hands up in exasperation. "Calm down! So what what if that’s true?" She didn’t mean to sound so cold, but the adrenaline from her frantic drive home was still pumping through her veins, and she was in no mood for dramas.
"And besides, I already sent a letter to their family. Whatever is going on over there is none of our business."
"Hey! You’re not listening to me!" Faye paused, taking a deep breath to steady herself. When she spoke again, her voice was lower but no less intense. "She’s in danger, Keres."
Keres sighed heavily, the sound dragging out of her like air escaping a punctured tire. "Mommmm!" She dragged the word out, her frustration bleeding through every syllable.
"Even if that’s the truth, let them! She’s not that important anyway. I’m sick and tired of this whole situation, and I don’t even want to know who the fuck she is!"
"Keres! Give some respect!" Faye’s eyes flashed with anger. "I told you, you’ll find out one day about her! Why we want you to marry her!"
"Fuck that shit, Ma!" Keres was shouting now, her voice echoing off the high ceilings. "I haven’t even met her yet and now I already hate her!"
She didn’t wait for a response. She spun on her shoes and stormed toward the grand staircase, taking the steps two at a time. When she reached her bedroom door, she didn’t bother to open it gently—she slammed it with enough force to rattle the paintings on the walls.
Inside her room, Keres stood in the darkness, her chest heaving, her hands clenched into fists at her sides. She didn’t understand why her mother was so obsessed with this random woman from the Auclair household.
She didn’t understand why she had been ordered to send that letter. She didn’t understand any of it, and she hated not understanding.
"Shit!" she muttered under her breath, kicking off her boots and throwing herself onto her bed.
"Now Keres acts like a mad dog again!"
Downstairs, Faye stood in the middle of the hall with her hands on her hips, staring up at the staircase as if she could will her daughter to come back down.
"Faye," Alfonso said gently, approaching his wife with careful steps. He placed a warm hand on her shoulder. "Let’s give her some space. Keres is an adult now. I’m sure she’s capable of making her own decisions."
He paused, considering his next words. "But after she cools down, I’ll talk to her, okay?"
Faye nodded slowly, though her jaw remained tight with frustration. "I’ll send the Auclair family some letters and check Asteria’s condition myself."
"N-No, don’t do that yet." Alfonso’s voice was calm but firm. "Let your spy gather as much evidence as we need." His eyes hardened slightly, the shift so subtle that only someone who knew him well would notice.
"But if we can’t put them in jail due to their family’s influence, we’ll take care of them in another way, okay?"
Faye met her husband’s gaze and saw the truth there—the ruthless businessman who lurked beneath his gentle exterior, the man who had built the Eisenthurn empire alongside her. She trusted him. She always had.
"Okay," she agreed quietly. "Okay."
Alfonso pulled her into a hug, his arms wrapping around her securely. To anyone watching, he might have looked like nothing more than a loving husband comforting his distressed wife. But Faye knew better.
She knew that Alfonso was already calculating, already planning, already preparing to destroy anyone who had hurt the person their daughter was destined to meet.
The Auclair family had no idea what was coming for them.
~~~•••~~~
In the maids’ room at the Auclair estate, the world was much smaller and much quieter.
Asteria had finally been granted permission to rest, though "rest" was a generous term for what she was experiencing. Her fever had spiked sometime in the last hour, leaving her skin hot, sweaty, clammy and her mind foggy. Every breath was a struggle, every blink felt like lifting weights.
Thankfully, Tessa was there.
The young maid had snuck into Asteria’s room with a tray of food—warm porridge, a glass of water, and the medicine that Tessa had to beg the housekeeper for. She set the tray down on the bedside drawer and turned to face Asteria with a look of genuine concern.
"Ms. Asteria, please sit up," Tessa said softly, reaching out to help. "You have to eat so you can take your medicine."
Asteria tried to comply, she really did. But her body wasn’t cooperating. Her muscles screamed in protest with every movement, and she couldn’t stop the weak grunts and whimpers that escaped her lips.
Her breathing was uneven, her eyes were red and glassy with fever, and dark circles hung beneath them like bruises.
Tessa’s heart clenched. "Here, let me help you."
She slipped an arm behind Asteria’s back and gently pulled her upright, then positioned herself behind the smaller woman so Asteria could lean against her chest. The contact made Asteria flinch at first—she wasn’t used to being touched gently—but slowly, hesitantly, she relaxed into the support.
"There?" Tessa asked, trying to keep her voice light and cheerful despite the lump in her throat. "Better?"
Asteria nodded like a child, a small, vulnerable movement of her head. She was still whimpering softly, the sounds of pain escaping despite her best efforts to stay quiet. Tessa could feel her trembling—not just a slight shiver, but a violent shaking that seemed to come from deep within her bones.
Without thinking, Tessa snaked her arm around Asteria’s waist and pulled her a little closer. The position wasn’t exactly proper—a back-anchoring hug, she realized—but somehow it felt right. It felt like what Asteria needed.
"Ms. Asteria, is this okay?" Tessa asked, checking in.
The effect was immediate. Asteria’s trembling began to subside slightly, and a sound escaped her that wasn’t a whimper and wasn’t a sigh. "H-Hnng~ it... It feels good," Asteria stuttered, her voice barely above a whisper. "What do you c-call t-this act?"
Tessa’s chest ached with a sadness so profound it almost took her breath away. Asteria didn’t know what a hug was. She had lived her entire life without ever experiencing this simple, fundamental act of human comfort.
"It’s a hug, Ms. Asteria," Tessa said softly.
"H-Hug~~~" Asteria tested the word on her tongue, as if tasting something new and strange. "Hmmm~ t-that’s n-new..."
Tessa smiled, even though she wanted to cry. "Yeah," she whispered, tightening her arms just slightly around the trembling woman. "I’ll take good care of you, so please just rest, Ms. Asteria."
And for the first time in longer than she could remember, Asteria allowed herself to believe that maybe someone meant it.
