Prologue
In the darkness of stormy night, when no good news would come, when there's no better and wiser deed as to stay in the warmth of roaring fire, a young boy were to leave his only home to study in a very prestigious school which coincidentally was also very far away from life as he knew it till this day. His mother's bed was not yet cold and still he would never feel her gentle hands on his shoulders. Strangely but Richard could not remember her voice that was like a soft singing of piano under skilled hands of a virtuoso. He could only feel coldness of her gravestone as he laid his hand upon it. He came here to say a last goodbye before a long road, she had told him hers just a week ago. Richard will not cry for her, for she is yet in better place. Not with her cruel husband who wasn't loyal or gentle to her even one day of their marriage, not with these gossiping and judging crones who only made her life harder. But also she wasn't with him. Richard loved his mother and yet she was ripped so early from his hands by severe illness. Doctors could make her suffering less but deep down he knew she lost her will to live. Even his love for her was not enough anymore to bear all of the pain which some calls 'life'.
For that he promised himself to always hate his father who now was standing near him. His decision to send Richard away was, on the one hand, a blessing for a boy because he couldn't bear a thought of living with this monster. But on the other hand, the world before the little boy was so big and dark and lonely, he could never imagine piece or a place there for himself. Yet there's things we must do and paths we must take. Looking out from the blurry window of his carriage he thought that his home vanished long before Carford Mansion could no longer be seen. At the age of 11, Richard Carford was absolutely alone.