You know, I was a normal girl once. I had a home and a family. I had parents that loved me.
But... that's ancient history.
I was ten years old when my mother caught the scarlet fever. She'd fought it for months.
My father had all the best doctors brought in but none could seem to cure her. Finally, she gave up and died.
A dark shadow fell over my home that day. I still remember sitting beside the bed when she took her last breath.
My father was leaning against the wall, his face gaunt and pale, his eyes lifeless. Then he left the room.
I didn't see him for nearly a week. He didn't even show up to the funeral.
When he finally did come home he locked himself in his office and wouldn't come out.
He wouldn't see or talk to anyone... not even me.
Several months later, he finally left his office... only to leave the house. He said he was going on a business trip. He was gone for three months, then when he came home he brought her with him.
It took me a while to figure out exactly who she was. And who her three sons were for that matter. Then I finally figured it out. She was my new stepmother.
My dad had picked her up on his trip, married her and brought her back.
Someone said it was a business arrangement and I had to agree because my father walked right back into his office and slammed the door.
He didn't look at me. Didn't even acknowledge my existence.
Well after that, I suppose you could say that he'd lost sight of what was important. His life became consumed with business and money... and being alone.
I never saw him except for the thirty seconds it took him to get from his office out the door, and when he came back.
Another thing I learned, my stepmother was a crook... literally. She ran a burglary ring and was training her three sons, Jackson who at the time was 18, Trent 16, and Boris 15, to be robbers.
And well... she decided to pull one more person into it.
An eleven year old girl who's mother had died and who's father had turned his back on her.
Unfortunately, it didn't take much prodding to get me involved. I was hurt and confused and desperately wanted to be accepted.
But accepting me was the last thing on Fiona's mind. All I was was another tool to her. Another pawn in her plans.
I didn't care. I didn't want to care. My life had been torn down and shattered by the people that I had trusted the most.
By time I was twelve I was the trickiest thief on our side of the country and actually led several of the robberies.
We robbed everything from pickpocketing cash to holding up wagons.
It wasn't too long before the towns people started recognizing me as the thief. The Girl who will rob you blind if you don't watch out. The name everyone called me while we were robbing was Cinderella, because I was there and gone just as fast.
But as before, I didn't care. A hard callous had formed over my heart, blocking any feelings I might have had. I never cried after that. I just let everything that could have been important pass without notice. There was nothing that mattered in my life anymore.
Family was a figment of my imagination and friends... I had none. Everyone was an enemy.
Even my father.