As Ievy slowly made her way to her father’s office, she silently cursed him out for being the worst in the family, well… him and the Duchess. The walk felt long, but somehow, she reached the Duke’s office faster than she expected. Her nerves tightened as she pushed open the door.

  The moment the door cracked open, something whistled through the air. A glass bottle flew past her face so close she felt the wind of it brush her cheek. It smashed into the wall behind her with a sharp, violent crack, shards exploding across the floor. The smell of whatever had been inside, maybe alcohol or ink, hit her nose as the liquid dripped down the wall in dark streaks. If she had stepped in even a second earlier, it would have hit her square in the head.

  “Ievy, you empty headed RAT of a daughter!” the Duke yelled from inside the room.

  Ievy wiped the shock off her face in an instant and walked in. She calmed her nerves in seconds. Now that she was here, she actually knew where in the story she was. And that was information she needed. She knew she had to get out of this hellhole of a house if she didn’t want to die.

  The Duke sat on a couch near the middle of the room, sprawled across it as if he needed all the space. He was clearly drunk. Ievy should have known this wasn’t going to be anything easy. But how dare this bastard call her empty headed and a rat when he was the reason the Elkins household lost everything in the first place.

  Ievy sat down on a chair close to the couch, the smell of alcohol swirling around the room. She clenched her nose as the nauseating scent washed over her. The Duke looked completely bewildered. Normally, Ievy was too scared of him to get this close, and that expression on her face… it was full of disgust. Her nose was wrinkled, her eyes narrowed, and she even had her hand over her nose.

  But as if the alcohol had taken over, his thoughts drifted away again.

  Ievy took a closer look at him. He had the same chestnut colored hair as Austin, though it was graying at the temples. His reddish-brown eyes looked hazy, probably from the alcohol. Deep wrinkles cut across his face, and a jagged scar slashed over his nose and cheek. His shirt was half unbuttoned, and he held a golden goblet filled with more alcohol.

  His appearance was almost theatrical. The ornate embroidery on his clothes looked expensive, but it didn’t hide the fact that he was falling apart. The brooch pinned to his chest gleamed under the dim light, but it felt out of place on someone so drunk and bitter. His belt buckle was shaped like something regal, but the way he slouched made it look ridiculous. He looked like a man who wanted to be feared but had already lost the respect that came with it.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  The Duke began speaking, slowly and mumbled. None of it mattered to Ievy. Most of it was just him complaining about how much he regretted adopting her. His words slurred together, mixing self-pity with venom. She didn’t flinch. After about thirty minutes, the bastard finally stopped talking. Ievy hadn’t listened to half of it, but she didn’t care anyway.

  She almost rolled her eyes at the end but forced herself not to. Even so, the Duke seemed to notice something was off. He suddenly started yelling again, demanding to know why she wasn’t crying like she always did. His voice cracked with frustration as he pushed himself up from the couch. He stood unsteadily, swaying, nearly falling over. The sight was so pathetic that Ievy had to fight the urge to laugh out loud. Internally, she was already laughing at the ridiculous scene in front of her.

  His face turned red with anger, the kind that bubbled up from deep inside his drunken haze. He started stumbling toward her, each step heavy and uneven. Ievy knew he would explode with rage soon, so she calmly told him she would be leaving.

  She stood up, smoothing her clothes and making sure everything sat right. As she walked toward the door, she glanced back at him one last time. That was when something caught her eye. On the desk, half buried under papers, was a document. It looked familiar somehow, but she couldn’t place it in the moment. Her instincts told her it mattered, but she didn’t dare linger.

  She opened the door and stepped out. The moment she crossed the threshold, she took a deep breath, as if a heavy weight had finally lifted off her shoulders.

  Ievy walked back to her room. The walk was silent, not a single word spoken, not a single thought forming. Her mind felt blank, almost numb. But the second she reached her room, everything rushed back at once, thoughts piled over each other as if they had been waiting behind a closed door.

  The room felt comforting. It was large, the ceiling stretching high above her. A wide bed sat near the center, and giant windows lined the walls, flooding the space with soft, natural light. The walls were a pastel blush pink with golden trim tracing elegant patterns across them. A balcony opened out from one side of the room, and from there she could see the massive garden below, where countless beautiful and exotic flowers bloomed in carefully arranged beds.

  Ievy felt a bit relieved and even had a little fun exploring her room. She plopped down onto the bed, bouncing slightly before sinking into the blankets. Exhaustion hit her all at once. Her eyes grew heavy, and she drifted into sleep.

  It was dark. But then light gushed through a crack in the darkness. The sudden shift startled Ievy, yet it felt warm and familiar, just like when she passed out before arriving here. She was in the same void. It felt exactly the same. Golden specks drifted through the air like dancing snowflakes. She smiled. It felt nice to be in that place. It was where she felt relaxed and calm, a place she could rest in for eternity if she could.