Eliza Carson hasn't always had a happy life.
She used to live with her parents in a little village. When she was five her father found out she wasn't his real daughter. Her parents had always wanted a son but they had a daughter instead. Even her grandparents didn't like her. But her mother and father had always loved her, even if she wasn't a boy like everyone in the village. When she was five, father found mother cheating and then accused her of committing infidelity. He said that she wasn't his real daughter. However, her mother had kept insisting that she wasn't lying but her entire family beat her with a stick in front of her. After that, she was never treated nicely. Eventually her mother gave birth to a son and she was soon treated nicely, but Eliza was always forgotten in a corner. She had to chores every day even when she couldn't, and her grandmother would hit her black and blue with a iron pan of she couldn't do the tasks to her satisfaction.
Eliza never went to school, she never had friends, and she didn't know how to talk, the world outside was only limited to going to the well and coming back for her. But then suddenly on the year she was going to turn twelve, and her little brother was going to turn eight her family had forgot she was weeding the garden and left her outside freezing on the pavement in the winter. A nice granny down the street had let her sleep on her house's floor for the night when no amount of knocking and begging got her in. She didn't want to be too loud, just enough so her mother could hear her.
If her father found out it was her who disturbed his sleep, she knew she would die.
But then the next morning the entire village found out that the family by the street had died of carbon monoxide poisoning. The police had taken her with them as they tried to call her relatives but she didn't have any. They were a small family. But then Eliza had remembered her father saying that he had finally found who she had been switched with, and that they were 'high class ' and 'posh', he had also tried to dial the number but they hadn't picked up. Eliza had a special ability: she could remember everything she saw down to the littlest details. So she dialed the number not knowing what else to do. Thankfully someone picked up:
"Hello?"
xxxx
Her real family were really nice. They already had a pampered adopted daughter with them and she was really pretty. Her name was Ryuha and Eliza hoped that they could be like sisters. She never really had any family. Her room was really big and bright and she had never seen a room so pretty before. That night the entire family had gone out for dinner. Eliza was shocked.
Is that how a real family was supposed to be like.
They were all smiling and chatting, her real brother was poking her hair and pulling it and Ryuha was asking her if she liked Chanel or Prada but she had no idea what they were so she just agreed to what they said. Her father was grim and upright but occasionally he smiled and joked a little. She wondered if she deserved all of this.
There was clearly no space for her.
They all were already happy.
When they reached the restaurant that her father had apparently rented for the night, they all waited until the driver( according to Ryuha they were called chaffeurs and Eliza was going to be her sister. The thought made her feel warm and fuzzy on the inside. The fact that she was someone's family) opened each and every door and unbuckled the children's seatbelt. It was her first time sitting in a car and her mother had a weird look in her eye when she said that she was never allowed to step in her fake family's car before. They all got out one by one leaving Eliza and Ryuha last. When she was about to get out, Ryuha placed a hand on her shoulder and said, "You won't take my place will you?"
Her eyes widened as the thought crossed her mind that Ryuha might hate her. Of course she would. She could understand after all, how suddenly being revealed to be fake would feel like. But her parents seemed like such nice people and so did her brother, they looked like they loved Ryuha, and how could they harm someone so pretty?
"No. Never."
She grinned, mischevious glint in her eye, like she was about to pull a prank, she yanked Eliza's shoulder and dragged her body from the car and hopped into the pavement as Eliza squealed as the air rushed around her ear.
Did Ryuha not believe her?
Was she going to hit her?
But no she didn't. Eliza, who was apparently small for her age was on a piggyback on Ryuha's back clinging to her shoulder. Eliza could hear her laughter as she began to laugh too and then Ryuha began to run, so fast that the air whistled and tussled her hair and their laughter and glee.
It was the last time one of them laughed.
xxxxxx
Eliza was twenty.
One more year to go.
One more year until she could save Ryuha.
Until she could finally be free.
But then she got a call from mother that Ryuha was in the hospital and she felt guilt stab her heart and her stomach clawing. It was all her fault. She should have never believed her parents. She should have come home on the holidays and checked on her. Eliza was sent away to a boarding school for girls as soon as she turned thirteen.
She didn't want to lose her only family.
They told her Ryuha was fine and she was just 'misbehaving'
Eliza was a fool for believing them. No, she chose to believe them out of her own selfishness. She was cruel.
Just as cruel.
And because of that she had almost killed her sister.
She cried on the ten thousand dollar cabinet.