Amelia Sorrow

As misfortune continued to follow the family, rumors began spreading that House Thornwick was cursed.

The repeated deaths, failed pregnancies, and absence of a male heir gave the gossip an unsettling persistence, and the lord soon found that his family’s reputation had become an obstacle in its own right.

No other women from the Ashbore imperial bloodline were willing to marry into his household, as the relatives who remained feared that their daughters might suffer the same fate as Liana and her successor, with his options narrowing, the lord was forced to abandon his search for another bride from the fallen imperial family and turn his attention toward the daughter who remained.

His second daughter, Selena, became the focus of all his remaining hopes and unlike her elder sister, Selena possessed the qualities her father believed were essential in a noblewoman.

She was beautiful, intelligent, and exceedingly talented, with the kind of qualities that could make her an attractive prospect for the son of a prestigious family.

The lord reasoned that if he arranged an advantageous marriage for her, she might secure the male heir he had failed to obtain through his previous unions and such a match would allow him to preserve the pedigree of his house, strengthen his political connections, and maintain his authority over the vast territory he had inherited.

Determined to make that possibility a reality, the lord spared no expense in preparing Selena for her future role. He employed the most distinguished tutors to cultivate her abilities, surrounded her with hundreds of servants to attend to her needs, and provided her with dazzling garments and sparkling jewels that would enhance her beauty.

Nothing was considered too extravagant if it helped make her more desirable in the eyes of prospective suitors. Whatever Selena wished for, her father was willing to provide, convinced that every privilege and advantage would bring her one step closer to securing the marriage that could safeguard his family’s future.

He devoted himself to making Selena the most desirable bride in Thornwick, determined that no other noblewoman should surpass her in beauty, education, refinement, or wealth.

Her future became the center of his ambitions, and every resource at his disposal was directed toward ensuring that she would attract a husband worthy of the family’s standing.

As for Amelia, she received none of the attention or consideration lavished upon her younger sister. Her father regarded her as a disappointing burden, someone who offered him no advantage and whose very existence threatened to undermine the plans he had worked so hard to establish.

He made no effort to understand her difficulties, nurture her abilities, or offer her the affection a child might reasonably expect from a parent. She was simply the least of his priorities, an unwanted daughter whose presence brought him more frustration than pride.

In truth, Amelia might have been better off had he forgotten that she existed altogether.

After Selena’s birth, the lord increasingly came to regard his eldest daughter as a thorn in his side. Her condition had already made her an object of his disappointment, but as he began preparing Selena for an advantageous marriage, he became even more conscious of the damage Amelia might inflict upon the family’s reputation.

Many nobles were reluctant to form alliances with households that had produced children they considered flawed, fearing that such imperfections might reflect poorly upon their own bloodlines or be passed down to future generations.

Some went so far as to avoid these families entirely, convinced that misfortune followed those whose descendants suffered from physical or other perceived defects and such prejudices made Amelia’s existence especially inconvenient to her father, who feared that knowledge of her severe speech impediment might discourage potential suitors from seeking Selena’s hand.

No matter how beautiful, intelligent, or accomplished his younger daughter became, the stigma attached to her elder sister could cast doubt upon the entire household and diminish its appeal to prestigious families and without an advantageous marriage for Selena, the lord’s carefully laid plans for future political alliances could collapse.

He could lose the opportunity to strengthen his influence through a powerful son-in-law, and the future of his house might once again become uncertain.

The possibility tormented him, for he could not bear the thought that his eldest daughter’s condition might stand in the way of the power and security he had spent his life pursuing.

The lord became increasingly consumed by these fears, viewing Amelia not as his own flesh and blood but as a threat to his ambitions. In his darkest moments, he wished that a plague or some other illness would claim his firstborn and rid him of the burden she represented.

To him, she was the child who had first introduced failure into his household, the daughter whose birth had denied him the son he desired and whose condition continued to threaten everything he hoped to achieve.

As Amelia grew taller, her father’s anger only intensified, and she became the unfortunate target of his unrestrained fury.

He claimed that his punishments were intended to teach her proper manners and correct her perceived shortcomings, but his methods brought her nothing except pain and fear.

Day after day, he lashed her until her delicate flesh was covered in painful blisters, leaving her to endure the consequences of his cruelty without the comfort or protection she so desperately needed.

He remained convinced that her imperfections could be beaten out of her, as if enough punishment might somehow erase her stutter and transform her into the daughter he wished he had been given yet no amount of scolding, humiliation, or physical torment could accomplish what he demanded.

Instead of recognizing the harm he was causing, he treated her inability to meet his impossible expectations as further proof that she was defective.

To him, Amelia was a disgrace to their house, a worthless creature who deserved no more consideration than a rodent.

He looked upon her with such contempt that she gradually learned to expect nothing but anger whenever she came into his presence. His words and blows taught her to associate her own existence with shame, while his constant disapproval stripped away whatever confidence she might once have possessed.

Under the weight of her father’s unforgiving punishments and the contemptuous gaze he directed at her, Amelia slowly withered like a dried leaf deprived of life.

She learned to make herself small, to remain silent whenever possible, and to endure her suffering without expecting anyone to intervene on her behalf.

The longer she lived beneath his authority, the more deeply his cruelty shaped the way she viewed herself, until she could scarcely imagine that she might possess any worth beyond what he had taught her to believe.

In time, Amelia resigned herself to the life she thought she deserved: that of the unwanted daughter, the shameful fool, the despicable Amelia whom her own father could neither love nor accept.