Carina Rayburn had everything.
She was born the first and only daughter of Duke Robert Rayburn, a man who was held in high esteem, a man who arguably had as much influence as royalty. Her mother, Felicity Rayburn, was a beautiful woman, full of warmth and kindness, a woman that the Duke loved more than anything in the world.
Carina Rayburn had everything, everything but luck.
Though the Duke loved his wife, he felt nothing for his child. It was as if he simply didn't have the space in his heart to love both his wife and his child. In the end, nothing mattered to him more than Felicity, and no matter what Felicity tried, she could never get him to respond with anything but a cruel indifference to his own daughter.
When Carina's eleventh birthday arrived, her mother fell ill. Felicity was a strong woman, with a brightness that made her shine even in the darkest of times, but even she could not battle a deadly disease and win.
She died just three months later.
The Duke mourned, and mourned, and mourned. In the process, he forgot about Carina completely.
Carina was moved to a deserted part of the Rayburn mansion, with only one maid to attend to her. She even stopped eating her meals at the dining room, instead choosing to eat by herself in her bedroom. She became a ghost, unseen, unheard.
Eventually, the Duke remarried, bringing a woman named Vanessa and her two children Jonas and Jane into the household.
He didn't love her children any more than he did his own child, but he did seem to actually feel something for Vanessa, so her children still lived good lives in the mansion, loved and acknowledged (even if it was never by the Duke himself).
In the meantime, Carina Rayburn's existence became nothing more than a whisper.
That didn't change until the night Carina died.
She was in bed, crying herself to sleep as she always did, when suddenly her heart had just given out, as if it finally gave up on her miserable existence.
That was the end of the story for Carina Rayburn.
Or at least, it was supposed to be, until her heart started back up the next morning and her eyes opened once again.