It was one of those days when Lauren was punished by the Queen for making a mistake. She broke the expensive vase Queen Thalia asked her to clean, and because of that, she received a strong slap and was locked in the dark storage room the whole night.
"Come here," Rosetta snuck into the storage room when midnight came to bring Lauren food because the poor girl had not eaten anything the entire afternoon.
"Eat this soup." Rosetta gave the bowl to Lauren and Rosetta’s eyes glimmered in pity as she watched Lauren eat as fast as she could due to hunger.
When Lauren was done, the maid put some healing ointment on her delicate cheek where a dark bruise could be seen because of the Queen’s slap.
"The next time be careful around the Queen, Princess Lauren," Rosetta said and patted the young girl’s head.
Months had passed after Lady Mildred’s death and Lauren felt lonelier with each passing day. The bright smile she used to wear was nowhere to be seen now.
Rosetta was the only person in the castle who showed her a little kindness but when the Queen discovered how Rosetta was giving her food every time she was locked up, the maid was punished right before Lauren’s innocent eyes.
"How dare you defy the Queen’s orders!" Queen Thalia whipped the maid herself. They were in the castle’s dungeon.
She then looked at Lauren who was held by two maids and was crying hard. "Watch this, you foolish child! Watch how this lowly maid will die because of you!"
"P-please, Your Majesty! Her Highness is just a child, you should not let her see this!" Rosetta begged while the Queen was mercilessly whipping her body until she bled.
"A lowly maid like you cannot tell me what to do!"
Lauren trembled while crying as she was forced to watch how the Queen tortured her mother’s maidservant who was the person taking care of her the past months.
She closed her eyes but when she did, she only received a slap from the Queen.
Rosetta was only a human and with the brutal torture she received, her body eventually gave up and Lauren saw how the maid gave her one last smile to her before she took her last breath.
After that incident, Lauren did not speak for a month. The glimmer in her eyes vanished. As a young child who had never witnessed such cruelty before as her mother always sheltered her from the dark things happening in the castle, the bloody scene stayed on her mind. It scarred her soul.
None of the maids dared speak to Lauren more than necessary, scared that what happened to Rosetta might happen to them.
As years passed, Lauren’s heart which was once pure and full of hope was slowly consumed by hatred. Little by little she learned how to be careful around the castle, to move and speak less so she could avoid making mistakes all while learning how to be wiser.
However, the Queen’s children kept making it hard for her. On Casper’s eighth birthday, he received a gift from King Martin, a pet tiger. The boy was born sick, but in his prime years he was well and could walk around the castle as he pleased.
Lauren just turned fifteen and just as she thought Casper would not pull any tricks on her as her sisters did, one day he asked her to bring food to his tiger which was locked in the room next to his. Little did she know that the food contained a drug that would make the tiger go berserk.
The tiger almost attacked Lauren and if only she didn’t learn how to create a barrier out of a spell, she would have been eaten by the tiger. A maid happened to pass by the room and heard the noise inside. The royal guards arrived soon and were able to tame the tiger just in time the weak barrier Lauren created was broken.
Lauren was interrogated by the King that night about what happened. She said the truth but her father chose to believe Casper’s twisted words. Casper said that he never told Lauren to feed his tiger and that she must have done it to poison his pet. None of the servants in the castle dared disagree with the young prince’s words even though some of them knew he was lying.
"She did it because of envy, father," Eloise said.
"Maybe she wants father to also give her a gift. Are you that thirsty for attention, Lauren?" Cassandra looked at her as if she was a pathetic pest in their family.
"You know the tiger is special to Casper, Lauren. I gave it to him myself. How dare you try to harm his pet," the King said with his blue eyes identical to hers holding so much disdain for her.
It was the moment Lauren started to hate how she got her father’s deep blue eyes when he never treated her like a daughter all these years.
"Father, I-I did not-"
"Give me the whip! I shall punish her myself so she would learn her lesson!"
Lauren knew her attempt to make her father listen to her was futile so she just shut her mouth and stopped trying to make him understand her side. Because she knew he would never treat her like how he treated his children to the Queen. For him she would always be a step behind the others, the child he did not want.
Queen Thalia patted her son’s head as she mouthed three words to Lauren.
"You deserve it."
The Queen and her three children watched Lauren get whipped by the King without mercy.
Lauren cried and screamed in pain while her back was being whipped until the back of her dress was torn and filled with blood.
She fell unconscious in the process and when she woke up, she was already in her room. A physician attended to her but as the wounds on her back were deep, it took weeks for them to heal.
Only that her back was never the same after that, and she knew she would carry the scars her own father inflicted on her throughout her lifetime.