The following excerpt occurs seven years prior to RWBY Vol 1 Ep 1
Willow Schnee laid unconscious on her ward gurney. On life support, she was treading on thin line with her basic bodily functions to get a grip on whatever chances she has on staying alive, let alone wake up and recover. Additionally, she had suffered massive loss of blood from her abdomen after a certain dragon-like being sunk it's teeth into her already beaten body.
The wall clock hit midnight as the white-haired huntress continued to breathe slowly despite having low-brain activity. The room door slowly swung open and a woman of jet-black hair entered. Jacqueline Gelé walked slowly towards Willow. With her right arm in a cast and her left cheek covered in crepe bandage after being stitched, she herself had sustained damage, albeit not as severe as her sister-in-law.
"Your children and your butler were hysterical. They had doubts as to whether you'll wake up, or even live," Jacqueline began speaking. "But I know better, you have a strong aura and my brother is already assembling the finest surgeons and doctors he could pay for to work on your current predicament."
"It's going to be Weiss' tenth birthday in a week. The little girl is worried that you won't live to see her strike that double-digit age," Jacqueline stared at the almost lifeless Willow and could not help but slightly sympathize with her. "I believe you'll wake, I believe you will recover just in time for her birthday party. The only question is, will you be that same strong-willed woman who has always defied Jacques whenever he screams at your children, ignore his children, even physically harm them? Or will you falter just like all those Atlesian brats moping and whining when they finally met with defeat after having their wealthy parents shower them with obscene amounts of lien?"
She then morphed her still working left palm into its skeletal form and used it to move a chair from a corner of the room to where she was standing. Four skeletal tails wrapped themselves around each leg of the chair and dragged it closer to their user. It was Jacqueline's semblance at work but unlike the Schnees, it was a hideous ability that had been known to creep out even the most hardened criminals.
"Now that we've had our battle, it's time I open up to you as a sister-in-law," she sat down and rested her back with one leg above the other. "What was it that your father used to tell you, Willow? That you'd grow up to be the best of the best? That you will always be his little snowflake?"
She scoffed at the very thought of a father showing love and affection to his very privileged daughter. The ward was silent, the only consistent sound being the repetitive beeping of the life support but it was hardly a distraction to her. "I grew up very poor. I was the youngest in the family," Jacqueline took a deep breath before digging back into her painful childhood. "When I was nine, Jacques was still in high school, attending lessons in the morning and coming back home to finish the housework since there was no one else to do it. My father was never there, he was always out galivanting with different women while splurging his money on parties, alcohol and gambling with not a single cent of his salary ever used for the family."
"And my piece of shit mother would beat me half to death every day during training because she so badly wanted me to become a huntress like her," her fist went into a tight clench before loosening again.
"It was Jack who was the sole breadwinner for the family. He had just started work as a runner for the Mantle Dust Cartel. I remember that time Jacques found out about his real profession and got into a heated argument with him because he hated the thought of our eldest brother getting involved with crime. But eventually Jacques conceded and no longer opposed Jack's decision to work with the cartel...all five of us needed to be fed," there was a mixture of pain and fondness in her voice. Even though that particular feud reopened old wounds, it was heartwarming that all three siblings were still close at the time.