To You Who Wish For My Despair

Orphaned at a young age and burdened by her late father’s overwhelming debts, Anastasia endures a life of quiet starvation despite her noble blood. Her desperate circumstances shift when her uncle, Count Everdeen, offers to settle the family’s financial ruin under one condition: she must become engaged to his bitter rival, Duke Theodore. With no other options left, Anastasia accepts the arrangement and relocates to Theodore’s grand estate. Life within the duke’s palace proves to be its own kind of torment. Both Theodore and his household staff treat her with open contempt, subjecting her to relentless cruelty ranging from the deliberate destruction of her clothing to being served rotting meals. The emotional abuse reaches a devastating peak when Theodore coldly remarks that it was fortunate her parents had died. Yet, just as her isolated existence seems entirely devoid of hope, an unexpected encounter with a kind gentleman at a formal ball begins to change the course of her tragic life.