Chapter 03

Estelle's POV

"Mom and Dad have been so worried about you these past three years."

Cassius said it without looking at me. His eyes were on his phone as the car rolled through the city.

"So be nice when we get home, okay? Control your temper. And stop picking on Delilah. She's been through enough. Don't make our lives harder than they already are." He finally glanced at me. "Keep your head down, and nobody will treat you any differently. Understand?"

I looked out of the window. Tall buildings. Busy streets. People laughing at a coffee shop. Life had kept going without me.

"Estelle. Are you even listening? I'm talking to you."

I turned to face him.

"Three years," I said quietly. "I spent three years in that convent. And not one of you came to see me. Not once."

He sighed like I was being difficult.

"Not on my birthday. Not at Christmas. Not at Easter. Nothing." My voice shook, but I kept going. "The convent is only two hours away, Cassius. Two hours. They couldn't spare one afternoon to see their own daughter? And you still think they care about me?"

"This is exactly what I mean," he snapped. "You act like a child. They stayed away on purpose. They wanted to give you time to think about what you did. Time to heal and become a better person. Everything they did was for your own good, Estelle."

For my own good.

I almost laughed. My back was still bleeding under my dress, and he was telling me it was for my own good.

---

The car stopped in front of the Silverthorn mansion.

It looked exactly the same. White walls. Tall windows. A fountain in the front with a stone angel pouring water from a jar. Fairy lights hung over the garden for the party tonight.

Cassius reached into the back seat and grabbed a small blue gift box tied with a silver ribbon.

For one stupid second, my heart jumped. A welcome home gift?

I reached for it.

He pulled it back.

"Oh, that's for Delilah," he said. "She's been feeling sad all week."

Of course it was.

He climbed out of the car and fixed his tie. "Go change into something nice. I'll see you in the banquet hall."

He walked inside without waiting for me.

---

I didn't go through the front door. I went around the side of the house, past the kitchen, to the small storage room at the very back.

Home, sweet home.

This was where the Silverthorns let me sleep for the whole year I lived here before they sent me away. A tiny room with no window. A thin bed squeezed between old boxes and broken chairs. It still smelled like dust and floor soap.

Delilah's bedroom was upstairs. It had a balcony and a pink chandelier.

I sat down on the narrow bed.

*Change into something nice.*

As if I owned anything nice. Everything I had ever worn in this house was either Delilah's old clothes or the plain uniform they gave the maids.

---

*Four years ago...*

"Mom! Dad! Look!"

I came running into the living room in a yellow dress with tiny white flowers on it. My grandmother had sewn it for me by hand in the village, the week before the Silverthorns came to take me. It was the most beautiful thing I owned.

I wanted to wear it to my first dinner with my real family.

My mother, Pandora, looked up from the sofa. Her face twisted like she had smelled something rotten.

"Estelle, what on earth are you wearing?"

I looked down at my dress. "Grandma made it for me. Isn't it pretty?"

"You are a Silverthorn now," she said sharply. "You cannot walk around looking like a farm girl. What will people say? Learn how to dress properly. Like Delilah."

Delilah sat beside her in a soft cream dress that probably cost more than my whole village. She gave me a small, sweet smile.

"Now take that off," my mother said. "And throw it away."

That night, I didn't throw it away. I folded it very small and hid it at the bottom of an old box in the storage room.

---

*Present...*

I was their real daughter. Their blood. But they never cared about me.

Delilah wasn't even theirs. She was the baby the hospital gave them by mistake. And still, she was their pride and their joy. Their princess.

Me? I was the embarrassing secret they dragged out of a village.

The one they blamed for Delilah's crime.

*"I wish you had never been born!"*

*"It wasn't me, Dad! It was Delilah!"*

The one they locked away in that convent to be beaten and starved for three years.

I knelt down and pulled the old box out from under the bed. I dug through dusty papers and broken picture frames until my fingers touched soft cotton.

The yellow dress.

It was faded now. A little wrinkled. But the tiny white flowers were still there.

This was what I was wearing the day they brought me into this house.

So this is what I'll wear the day I leave them for good.