The Forgotten Daughter

Synopsis

After my family fell from grace, I was sent with my parents to the harshest rural farm. Fifteen years there destroyed my body and carved sickness into my bones. When my father was finally rehabilitated and returned to power, my parents' guilt belonged only to my sister. "Kayleigh," my father said, heavy with remorse, "cutting ties with you was the only way to protect you. Can you forgive me?" My mother took her hand. "All the things I said back then… I didn't mean them. You understand, don't you?" And I had already turned from a commander's proud daughter into a worn-down village woman. Even my fiancé, who once promised to wait for me, chose my sister instead. "Celia," he said calmly, "I'm a college graduate. You never even finished high school. We don't belong together." He proposed to her with my parents' blessing. Everyone applauded. At the wedding, I sat in the farthest corner, listening to quiet contempt. Then my sister whispered, smiling, "Your letter for help? I received it. And Mason, I seduced him on purpose." I exposed her, but no one believed me. My parents had me locked in a storage room. "Know your place," my mother said. "Bless them." Seven days passed. No one came. When the door finally opened, they found only my body, lips purple, blood at my mouth, already cold.