ten, unwritten, and the kind that changed dependi

, he just enjoyed catching people off guard. There was a certain satisfac

ic, theatrical, and always complaining. She had

uest towels with the monogram 'VA', turned inward, hidden from view. Genevieve

y raised his voice - not to defend the staff, but

came the thr

ss

t him - from the way he dressed to the way

Aelrich was

ir, the shadow of Lucien.

d quiet. He didn't need to be loud like his mother, or leave sharp words behin

ed most of the time, felt herself str

s hard for everything. Some may say he works more t

e the mi

Van Ae

of their venom. Instead, he spoke rarely, listened too much,

d a maid and said 'take a break' and the one in the family

claimed he was too 'soft-hearted'. But his father never seemed to a

ame passion as his older brother, but he was in no way useless

le, there comes the l

didn't work for the company. He barely scraped through the most prestigious private

t were the reason, Rowan would've won. But because Theo was funny. Lou

nce and the tensi

lrich family. At least from Clara'

s to the brothers ' rooms, Clara found h

s no one looked at. The house didn't like noise - only soft steps, clean floors, and eyes that stayed down. So Clara worked like a shadow, s

dn't stop. N

hair, followed by raised voices. Clara froze. The calm of the morning shattered like glass. She couldn't make out the words

couple must have finished their breakfa

was it