The Fallen Princess

Prologue

The rising sun cast a rosy hue across the morning sky, accompanied by all the birds chirping to welcome the beautiful morning, when a piece of unpleasant news struck the Ryleigh household. A lovely young miss with a perfect life envied by others had lost everything within a blink of an eye. No one could ever imagine this would happen to Ryleigh's family.

Before the catastrophe happened, she had the complete package. You name it: Money, appearance, 'a perfect sweet family image' and boys swoon over her. Frankly speaking, her only shortage was her bad score and lack of Fatherly love, leading to her infamous reputation.

The twisted logic of her mother became a mantra after years of being told. It became the truth for her and no others, 'Nothing else is needed as long as she is beautiful, everything will be effortless in her life'. Moreover, it made her character spoiled and stubborn. Despite the flaws, She is truly the epitome of a nymph goddess with her distinct long wavy brunette hair and lustrous almond-shaped golden eyes as the gate of her soul. Her thick eyelashes blended perfectly with her thin and narrow crescent-of-moon eyebrows. Under her pert nose laid a bewitching heart-curved lip, completing her oval-shaped face with her long-neck peerless white skin that followed by her lovely body curves, seemingly a model would be.

Her mother, the replica of an older look of her, had pampered her by giving her everything she asked for with the judgment of how beautiful she was, slowly engraving the belief there was never a 'no' answer in her mother's dictionary nor anyone's dictionary just because of her features. Ironically, her mother spoiled her because she was conscience-stricken by her Father's indifference. After all, he tends to be a workaholic.

Promptly, her relationship with him was restrained. To seek 'fatherly love' or a 'man-to-woman-kind of love,' she tends to be flirty to clench her thirst for the non-existence of fatherly love. This behavior of craving attention and love from others by acting flirtatious to men made her crowned in school as the Flirty Princess. Her reputation of receiving all the guys' attention made nearly all the girls at school secretly envy, despise, and detest her.

Bluntly speaking, fake friends are the kind of friends swirling around her. Jovially, she truly thinks of them as her precious friends. Her naive thoughts that they were sincere disappeared when this blasphemy day occurred as her two sidekicks disappeared. Those girls were there for her to enjoy the privilege of the Young heir of Ryleigh to widen their connections, which was why it was no wonder when they heard about the catastrophe that had befallen her family. They acted as if they had never existed in her life.

Despite being famous at her school, she never considered being an influencer due to her introverted personality. Hatefully, Her social media is full of mocking and belittling from the people who know her personally and a few who were approved to follow her. These days, she tried to contact her friends during her difficult time, but none responded.

Truth be told, when the omen happened, she wished it was only a simple nightmare and that she would eventually wake up from it.

Unfortunately for her, the reality isn't as beautiful as in the fairy tale.

***

"Eve Darling, this is our new home." Eve, also known as Genevieve Ryleigh, arrived at the rental location with a look of disgust on her face. The space was considerably smaller than her previous luxurious room, and she could already predict that it wouldn't accommodate all the belongings that had yet to be confiscated by the bank. Ironically, despite 90% of their possessions already being seized, she still couldn't imagine fitting the remaining items into the new apartment. Essentially, the 10% they still had was more than the size of their current living space.

"Are you sure this is the place? This place is—" Eve cringed, horrified by the scenery provided by the small apartment full of disgusting things as it's not been cleaned yet. Her eye movement stopped when she spotted many spiderwebs and dust,"—EW."

Under Eve's mocking behavior, Her Father, Gary Ryleigh, criticized her, "Young lady, where are your manners?" At his reproach, disagreed Eve, glared directly at her Father. How dare he talk with me with that kind of tone. Did he even see how bad this apartment state is before purchasing it? She thought to herself, full of contempt towards him.

Viona Ryleigh, Eve's Mother, sighed deeply and spoke with disdain, "If it weren't for your stupidity, we wouldn't be in this situation. Just look at how dirty this place is." Her words shared Eve's sentiment, as she also expressed her disapproval of the current state of their place.

"You are spoiling her greatly! And it wasn't my fault that one of our employees betrayed me, escaped with our new creation that hadn't been released yet, and handed it over to our competitor—the shareholder's insistence on returning their money immediately, accused me of embezzlement, and dismissed me immediately. At the very least, In this dreadful situation, I managed to conserve some of our assets to let Eve remain at her academy and get us a small apartment fit for the three of us with no debts. Perhaps it's just not as fancy as before. But, Just be grateful that we aren't homeless. In any case, I already hired a private detective to find that person, and perhaps we can have our old life back if we prove the man's betrayal. As for now, I am the prime suspect in this leak. Hence, they asked me to take responsibility." Viona was displeased by the change in his tone of voice, two octaves higher.

Viona was quick to retort at her husband's reproach, "Well, Gary, you were the one who funded her education at that prestigious high school. But what happens after she's graduated? She's not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed." Her pride refused to let her admit defeat. In the small living room, she has watched her parents bickering, feeling numb like a bystander.

***