Bitter-Sweet Fairy Tales

Cinderella

Bitter Sweet Fairy Tales

All Rights Reserved

©2018 Katheryne N., Nievana J.

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"Have faith in your dreams, and someday, your rainbow will come smiling through. No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true." - Cinderella, Cinderella

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  Once upon a time, there lived a wealthy and powerful man, so wealthy that he bought and did whatever he pleased. He bought only the finest: house, clothes, and foods. His wife gave birth to his first and only child, Ember. She, too, would have only the finest. But he abused his power which caused the townspeople to detest him. 

  Ember would watched her father's greed and hostile behaviour and she didn't want to be that. She spent most of her time singing with birds and the mice that lived in the attic than she did fulfilling her upper class duties. She played with the maids' children rather than the other wealthy, stuck up children. She would sneak food from the kitchen for them because she knew they never had enough to eat. Despite Ember being born into the wealthiest and most prominent family in her town, she was charitable.

  Ember often remembered the first time she saw her father's anger toward his personnel, she was six. She noticed that half of the poor children had holes in their shoes and the other half had no shoes at all. She stole some money from her father and sent a maid to buy the children new shoes. The next day her father had noticed his shortage of money and the children's sudden gain of new shoes. Ember tried to tell him she stole the money but he believed the maids tricked her into it so he fired all of them and sent them to live on the streets with nothing. They weren't even allowed to keep their new shoes. That same night, Ember heard her father yelling at her mother, like he usually does. She never understood what he was angry about most of the time but she knew this time it was her fault.

  "Why did daddy have to be so mean to the maids?" Ember asked as her mother tucked her into bed. "It was only shoes." 

  Her mother sighed. "Try not to worry about it, angel. Just get some sleep." When she kissed Ember on her forehead she noticed a deep red mark on her mother's cheek. She looked down and saw a similar red mark on both of her mother's wrists.

  "Mommy, what's that?" Ember asked, pointing to the mark on her mother's face. 

  "I was walking in the meadow and I tripped. I hit my cheek on a stone." Her mother covered the mark with her hair. "Just try to get some sleep."

  Ember was never allowed to talk to the house workers and the house workers were not allowed to bring children. For the next four years she only played with the wealthy girls but she never liked them because they never wanted to play outside, only play dress up or house. 

  On her eleventh birthday, Ember's father died of a heart attack. She'll admit she missed him because, after all, he is her father but her mother was more than happy to admit he'd died. However, he left no money for Ember or her mother. He gave all his money to his sister.

  "Ember, I'm sending you to live with your Aunt Caroline," Her mother said as she sat Ember down. "We can't afford to live in this house anymore. There aren't any jobs I could get, at least none that would pay for this house."

  "But why can't I stay with you? We don't need a big house!" Ember was angered. She never cared about having the finest house, the finest food, or the finest clothes. She never understood why her mother cared so much.