A young, handsome man stepped over the threshold. He was dressed in luxurious, brightly colored silks that immediately marked him as one of the Marchioness’s favored pets. He offered a smooth, highly practiced bow, flashing a charming, overly confident smile.

"May I come in, Lady Seera?" he asked, his voice dripping with fake, sugary politeness.

Heena let out a long, heavy sigh. She didn’t even try to hide her massive annoyance.

She knew exactly who this was. This was the Second Groom. Heena already knew that the eldest groom—that parasite Kavien—was the main villain whose secrets had gotten the original Seera killed. But this second groom? He was just a massive, persistent problem in his own right. He was the type of person who always hovered around, scheming and causing completely unnecessary headaches.

Heena slowly lowered the bamboo file and glared at him, her dark eyes completely flat and unwelcoming.

"Now what?" she snapped, her voice dripping with pure, unfiltered sarcasm. "You are already standing inside my study. How much more do you want to come in? Do you want to just pull up a cushion and sit on my head or something?"

The Second Groom’s confident, practiced smile froze instantly on his face. He blinked, clearly taken aback. The rumors circling the estate claimed the returned heiress was a fragile, traumatized country bumpkin who had spent years as a battered servant. He had fully expected to waltz in here, flash his handsome face, and easily manipulate her into trusting him.

Instead, he was met with a glare so cold it could freeze boiling water, and a tongue sharper than a guillotine.

"Ah... Sister Seera," the Second Groom recovered quickly, forcing a wounded, gentle expression onto his face. He took another step into the room, entirely ignoring her open hostility. "You truly wound me with such harsh words. I only came because I heard you were resting in the study, and as your elder brother, I naturally worried about your health."

"Brother?" Heena repeated. She picked up her porcelain teacup, her tone dropping into a freezing, mocking register. "I was unaware that my mother had given birth to a son before me. Tell me, did she hide you in the stables for the last two decades, or were you simply a stray dog she found on the street and decided to dress in expensive silk?"

The Second Groom’s face flushed a deep, ugly shade of red. His hands clenched at his sides. In the capital, the Marchioness’s adopted grooms were treated with respect, backed by the immense political power of the estate. No one dared to call them strays to their faces.

"Lady Seera," he said, his voice losing its sugary sweetness, replaced by a stiff, warning edge. "I am formally recognized by the Marchioness. We are family. There is no need for such hostility. I merely came to deliver a message from Mother."

"Oh?" Heena took a slow, elegant sip of her tea. "Is the message written within her five hundred pages of self-criticism? Because unless she has finished writing her punishment for the Grand Madam, I do not believe she has the authority to send ’messages’ to the heir of this house."

Behind the Second Groom, standing perfectly still by the sliding doors, Samuel let out a slow, terrifyingly quiet exhale.

The sheer, blinding agony radiating from the restrictive leather bindings beneath his uniform was tearing his mind apart, but the Second Groom’s arrogant, threatening tone had triggered his lethal instincts. The air around the tall, masked guard seemed to visibly darken. A heavy, suffocating killing intent began to leak into the small study, entirely focused on the back of the groom’s neck.

The Second Groom suddenly shivered. He glanced nervously over his shoulder, his eyes landing on the towering, silent guard in the painted cat mask. He couldn’t see the man’s face, but the sheer, oppressive pressure radiating from the guard made the groom’s stomach twist in primal, instinctive fear.

He hastily turned back to Heena, eager to get this over with.

"Mother wishes for you to join us for a private family dinner tonight in her pavilion," the Second Groom stated, his voice a little faster, a little more nervous now. "Just the siblings and Mother. To properly welcome you back."

Heena lowered her teacup. A private dinner in the viper’s nest, completely isolated from the grandmother’s protection? It was an obvious, incredibly lazy trap designed to test her boundaries and perhaps drug her tea.

"A family dinner," Heena mused, her eyes gleaming with dark, dangerous anticipation. "How wonderfully quaint. Tell the Marchioness I will be there. I wouldn’t dream of missing a chance to catch up with my... *beloved* family."

The Second Groom nodded stiffly, desperate to escape the suffocating atmosphere of the study and the terrifying demon standing by the door. "I will let her know. Please, rest well... Sister."

He bowed hastily and practically fled from the room, sliding the door shut behind him.

The absolute second the *click* of the lock echoed through the study again, the oppressive killing intent in the room vanished, instantly replaced by a heavy, desperate thud.

Samuel’s knees completely gave out. He collapsed against the sliding wooden door, sliding down the frame until he hit the bamboo mat, his broad chest heaving violently.

"Wife..." he gasped, his massive hands flying up to tear the wooden cat mask off his severely flushed, sweating face. He looked across the room at her with wild, agonizingly desperate eyes, entirely stripped of his terrifying guard persona. "Please... I cannot... take it anymore."

Knock. Knock.

For a second, the universe seemed to just stop. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Samuel knelt on the floor, his massive hands frozen halfway to his leather bindings. The absolute, soul-crushing despair that washed over his face was almost painful to look at. He slowly closed his eyes, and Heena could actually hear the loud, audible *clatter* of his teeth grinding together as he clenched his jaw with enough force to shatter bone.

"I am going to kill them," Samuel whispered, his voice vibrating with a terrifying, genuine murderous intent. "I am going to slaughter every single person in this estate."

"Get back in the corner," Heena hissed, violently straightening her silk skirts and grabbing her bamboo scroll again.

Samuel moved like a mechanical puppet whose strings were about to snap. He shoved his mask back onto his face, threw his navy robes over his agonizing state, and retreated to his post, radiating a dark, suffocating aura of pure, unadulterated hatred.

Heena took a deep breath, her dark eyes literally glowing with suppressed irritation.

"Just come in!" she snapped, not even trying to hide her hostility this time.

The sliding doors opened once again, revealing the Third Groom.

There was a very specific reason Heena only ever referred to them as the First, Second, Third, and Fourth grooms in her head. It was because she literally could not remember their actual names. She remembered the eldest, Kavien, perfectly fine because he was the main bastard who had gotten the original Seera killed. But the rest of them? Their names went in one ear and completely out the other.

What she did know, however, was that these remaining bastards were going to be significantly harder to delete from the estate than Kavien.