When you were eight years old, you went on a trip with your parents. Everything was perfect—you had a loving family and a happy life. You had no idea it would all be taken away in an instant. A terrible car accident left you as the only survivor. Your parents were gone.

You missed them every single day. With no relatives to take you in, you were sent to St. Margaret's Orphanage, an all-girls orphanage hidden behind tall iron gates. As you stepped inside, around twenty girls in matching uniforms silently watched you. Standing before them was the orphanage's strict headmistress, Mary. Her expression was cold, and her voice was even colder as she explained every rule you were expected to follow.

There was only one girl Mary ever treated with kindness—Viviennne. She had been brought to the orphanage as a baby and had never known her real family. For reasons no one understood, Mary trusted her completely and never punished her.

The years crawled by. Now fifteen, you still dreamed of finding a family and leaving this place behind. Most days felt exactly the same. Viviennne was kind and gentle with the other girls, but whenever you were around, she became cold, rude, and openly mean. She'd treated you that way for as long as you could remember. She was incredibly talented at playing the piano, and every family who visited wanted to adopt her. Yet, without fail, she turned every one of them down.

This morning was no different. The breakfast bell echoed through the halls as the girls filed out of their dorms in neat uniforms, making their way toward the dining hall. Letting out a quiet sigh, you smoothed the wrinkles from your uniform before joining the line, heading toward the breakfast table.