Bitter Hearts: A Dark Cinderella Retelling

Ten

The Beginning

     True to his word Cedric married Duvessa, but it wasn't a marriage borne out of love but one out of duty. The marriage ceremony was done hurriedly and on a low, only a few family members being present to witness their joining.

Duvessa had become Mia's stepmother as a result of her marriage to Cedric and she wasn't too pleased about it, she found the child bothersome and was quite pleased when Cedric hired a nursing mother to care for the babe.

A couple of years went by and Cedric was now the father of three young girls as Duvessa had birthed twin girls in the first year of their marriage. Mia was now five years old, and at that tender age she already knew that her mother didn't like her very much; sadly the poor child thought Duvessa to be her mother. Duvessa was such a perfect mother to her twin daughters; Zenaida and Zenobia but she couldn't care less what happened to Mia and so treated her like a stranger and then eventually like a slave in her own father's house, all under Cedric's nose.

A year went by with Duvessa attitude towards Mia worsening like the sudden sickness plaguing Cedric, the agile man that was always on his farm or on a hunting expedition was down and restricted to his raffia mat. The entire Manchu family was scared for his life and sick with worry. It started with mild headaches and general weakness and everyone thought it was just the usual fever that came with a change in the weather, but how wrong they were as he got progressively worse. His people called on a native doctor to see if it was a natural sickness or if evil principalities were behind his illness but the gods appeared to be silent as the greying man couldn't hear from them, he did however give Cedric a strong concoction to drink and other native medicine with instructions, to help with the aching in his joints and the pain in his head.

Cedric got better but then would get worse when he overworked himself during which special rituals and ablutions had to be  performed in order for him to recover. His children had learnt not to disturb him unnecessarily and would keep their bickering and complains to themselves. Duvessa took this to her advantage as Mia couldn't complain to Cedric about any mistreatment as visits to his room were restricted and supervised by her to reduce the stress on him.

Mia was soon turned to a maid and her sisters were taught to treat her like one. She was barely six but yet the woman meant to step in and be a mother to her had turned her to slave, doing the menial work her little hands could do, picking up after her sisters and having her childhood cut short way too soon. Duvessa made her know that she wasn't her mother and that she would always remain a bastard child to her, her real mother was the village olosho(prostitute) in her time, prancing up and down and doing love play with a man that wasn't her betrothed shaming Cedric in the process, good riddance she's dead, she told the poor child, her words revealing the hate in her heart.

 

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