The Daughter's Shadow

Aurelia and Elara - the youngest twins and the only daughters of the De Santis family - were once the heart of their household. Inseparable, gentle, adored. Where one went, the other followed. Their parents cherished them. Their brothers protected them.

But everything shattered the night eight-year-old Elara was found bleeding on the floor... and Aurelia stood over her, a knife in her hand.

Blamed for a crime she didn't commit, Aurelia was sent away to a strict boarding school for "troubled children." Her parents believed discipline would straighten her out. What they never imagined was the truth - the cruelty hidden behind the school's walls, the sadistic methods used to "teach," and the horrors Aurelia was forced to endure.

Now sixteen, after a devastating incident inside that school, Aurelia is brought back to the De Santis mansion. But it's not a homecoming. It's an obligation. A reminder that she is unwanted, distrusted, and viewed as a threat by the very family she once loved.

Follow Aurelia as she relearns how to exist in a home that no longer feels like hers. Uncover the truth of what happened that night, what really happened to her within the school, and whether the De Santis family will ever face the truth of what Aurelia had to endure and do to survive.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
"What should I ache for?
The childhood that slipped away?
The silence that became my companion?
Or the pieces of myself that I will never get back?
Maybe pain isn't a phase--
it's just who I am."
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"How many graves will I need,
to bury everything
that died inside of me?"
❁Naya Aknis❁