"Vanessa Van Doren…" my mother began in a tone that said I had done something wrong. 

I must be in trouble for being caught with Noct in his room. 

"It's disgusting to see you in the same room as that desert cultist! Don't you remember your place as a noble? What if I had been a servant who got the wrong idea by seeing you two on the bed together? You know that our servants here love to gossip. Suppose they spread a rumor about how that man deflowered you before marriage. Do you even begin to understand what would happen to our family's reputation? No one would marry you, and all your father's hard work would be for nothing! How selfish can you be, foolish child?" she said in a fierce whisper, and I held my tongue, heart racing. 

My mother's wrathful blue eyes focused on me, and she continued in her venomous whisper, "Furthermore, how could you allow those thugs to kidnap you while out on the street? I thought you were smarter than that! That's the last time we let you go anywhere unguarded. You've humiliated our entire family. You know that your father and I work so hard to preserve the Van Doren house reputation, but you're acting like you're out to ruin it! First, your brother turned out to be useless trash, and now you want to follow him down the same path? Must both of our children become absolute failures?"

Her grip on my arm tightened, and I knew there would be a bruise in the morning, but I stood there, taking in her words until she spoke ill of my older brother. My blood boiled.

She'll regret saying that. She can insult me all she wants, but not him!

I smacked her hand away from my arm and stepped closer to her, an uncharacteristically hard look in my brown eyes. "I can stand you telling me I'm foolish and stupid for getting kidnapped, which wasn't even my fault. I can stand you telling me I don't know my place, that I shouldn't be mingling with 'rats' even when they saved my life. I can even stand you telling me I'm on the road to being a failure, a disappointment you wished never happened to you. I can stand you saying these things to my face every day, but you know what I won't stand?" by this point, my voice raised to a shout, the tears in my eyes threatening to fall, "I won't stand you referring to my brother as trash, dead or not! He was far better than you could ever wish to be!" 

After my shout, there was an awful silence in the hallway. I gave my gaping mother a fierce glare before turning and running to my room. I locked the door and ran to my bed, collapsing onto it as tears streamed down my face. Then, I let out all the built-up emotions by screaming into my pillow.

I hate this place. If only that bear had mauled me along with my brother. Even that would have been better than this, and I wouldn't be alone in this horrid castle!

Violent sobs wracked my frame when I thought of how I rejected my brother's offer to run away with him the night he died. I had been such a coward for not going with him. Back then, I let my fear of the consequences rule my decision, and now I was paying for it. When would I learn to do what my heart told me to do, not my fear?

I'll escape from this dreadful life no matter what — even if it means dying like my brother did!