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TWENTY-ONE WINNER TAKE ALL
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CORDELIA AURORA GENEVIEVE THORNE.
It's a name that her parents carefully and thoughtfully picked out for her after countless weeks of arguing and deliberating. A perfect name for their perfect baby girl.
Originally her mum had wanted to name her Juliet, after her favourite Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet. But her dad's first love — way back in secondary school — was named Romeo. So that ended up being completely off the table. They settled on Cordelia, after Vincent's favourite Shakespeare play, King Lear; because if Gianna couldn't get what she wanted, then she might as well let the love of her life get what he wanted.
The Aurora comes from Gianna's favourite Disney Princess movie: Sleeping Beauty. Because if she didn't get her first choice in her daughter's first name, you could be damn sure that she'd get a say in her first middle name. After all, when her sister used to go away for school, and her parents for work — Gianna didn't exactly have the most lively household. It was big and empty. So she had movies — and she can still name all the ones that she's ever watched. But her absolute favourite was always Sleeping Beauty. And though she knows her living situation wasn't the worst as they come, Gianna often dreamed of being woken up with a kiss from her very own magical prince, and he'd whisk her away from her cold empty house to a beautiful castle.
Genevieve was the name of Gianna's grandmother who unfortunately passed before Delia was born. Lung cancer. Because no matter how many times Gianna would tell her to quit, Genevieve wouldn't stop smoking. It was odd, Gianna had thought. Genevieve knew it was slowly killing her, and yet — she was perfectly at peace with it. No matter how much Gianna wasn't. Not that she would ever show it, of course.
But she brought it up, on more than one occasion. When her big and cold house wouldn't be so empty, because her grandmother would be sat beside her; watching Sleeping Beauty for the fiftieth time that day. She'd asked what would happen when Genevieve was gone forever, what she'd do if she was left alone in the house forever. Genevieve had said that she'd never be alone forever, that Gianna's very own prince was out there somewhere, waiting for her, just like she's waiting for him.
Gianna had smiled at this, and she'd turned her attention back to the television. "And Lainey?" she'd asked. Because even though her sister went away for school every single year, even though her parents weren't as discreet in their favouritism as they thought they were, Gianna Wright worshipped the ground her sister walked on.
Her beautiful, stunning sister who turned heads wherever she went. Her sister who her parents loved more than her. Her sister who Gianna, more than anything, looked up to. Who she loved and adored. Her wonderful, magical sister. Gianna hadn't seen the look of pity that her grandmother gave her.
