Meeting the family

The maids came in to help me with my hair, dress and light makeup. Since I was going to be meeting the family for the first time, I looked in the full length mirror in the room allocated to me, and I did not recognize the girl whose sad green eyes looked back out at me.

My reflection showed beauty and class. Sophistication even, with the dainty way I held my manicured hands. But my eyes held sorrow. I noticed how much change had happened to my entire existence in such a short period of time. I was still only eighteen years old, but I looked so much older to myself, and I was sure that it was not the makeup. Trauma had indeed aged me.

As it was a team working all at once on me, I was ready and on my way down the stairs to the dining room in roughly twenty minutes. I let the small tail of my silk dinner gown trail beautifully beside me as I descended the stairs slowly and confidently. I had already decided on the shower that I would fit in here or literally die trying.

When the guard