Autumn kept her eyes on Sean as she walked down the grand curved staircase, she kept her smug expression as she brushed past his parents and moved towards the dining room. 

She was just like Sean remembered, beautiful auburn curls tightly sealed in a bun, beautiful dark skin draped in a floor length white dress. But this time it hugged her gorgeous curves. The girl had grown into a woman and he couldn’t take his eyes off her. Sean was finally man enough to admit he was smitten. 

Autumn had a different aura about her, she was fearless and bold. She wasn’t a little girl anymore. She’d been through hell and nothing scared her anymore. She was a scarred woman and not even the masters of her prison could shake her. 

“Your mother is right, I’m not her guest” she grinned as she sat down at the head of the table. 

Sean followed her back into the dining room and sat at his seat. 

Mesmerized, “What is your name?” Sean asked

Autumn laughed to herself, some things never change. 

“Ophelia,” she smiled. 

Autumn turned to Meredith and said, “I’m here”

“Know your place, sit somewhere else,” Meredith said coldly walking back to her seat. 

Autumn made no motion to sit elsewhere. Meredith ignored her and turned to Sean, who kept his eyes on Autumn. 

She cleared her throat to get Sean’s attention, “Ophelia has been staying here for a while, and will continue to stay here long after your father and I retire to Westside villa” 

“She is not a guest, so do not treat her as such”

“Just pretend like she doesn’t exist,” Meredith snarled. 

Autumn grinned, “Would that be all? Madam,” “May I retreat back to my room”

Meredith motioned to the maid to fill her glass with wine as she humph’d to excuse Autumn. 

Autumn got up to leave  the dining room, when Sean got a hold of her arm. She glared at him, attempting to free herself from his grip. 

She hated being held, or touched, especially by a member of this household. Autumn felt her skin crawl, it was like a thousand termites were picking at her skin. Her pulling away just made him grip tighter, which made her even angrier. 

Sean felt her trying to pull away but he had no interest in letting go until he saw the bandage wrapped around her hands. Sean took her hands into his worry crept across his face. 

Autumn took this opportunity to take her hands back and ran up the stairs shutting the doors to her room. Sean, still in shock, stood there for a moment. 

“Honey, what is it?” Meredith slurred motioning for the maid to fill her glass up again

“Nothing mother,” Sean rolled his eyes and walked out of the dining room, leaving his mother with her comfort bottle. 

Meredith sat at the table alone, the tears forcing themselves down her cheeks. The sadness quickly turned to anger. She pulled herself up and stormed up the stairs to Autumn’s room. 

Pushing her way in, she walked up to Autumn who was sitting in her vanity set with the mirror covered and grabbed her by the hair. 

“You little slut, you can’t have him too,” Meredith cried. 

It took several maids to pull her off Autumn, but her grip was stronger the drunker she got. Everyone feared that she would pull Autumn’s hair out. Everyone, but Autumn, she was used to this. Ever since she was a child brought her against her will. 

At first it was just verbal with Mrs. Von Camper, when the madam got drunk she would throw insults at the little girl calling her all sorts of slurs, but when she turned thirteen something snapped and it became physical. Hair pulling, slaps, the belt, shoes, whips when she could; Meredith called it disciplining the child and no one dared to say a thing. The maids kept quiet and when Meredith was done they would pick Autumn up and clean her wounds. They only began to interfere when Autumn grew stronger and more violent as Meredith grew drunker and weaker. They needed to interfere to protect Meredith from the ticking time bomb. 

After getting Meredith off Autumn, she excused everyone from her room and lay in bed, hoping tonight would be a peaceful night. She never slept though, she could never trust a soul in that house enough to have a good night sleep. Paranoia kept her safe, the best way it could.