Chapter 1 The Beginning

It was an uncomfortable sight for some but just a normal day for the occupant of the room.

Coughing sounds filled the hospital room.

It may have been a VIP room but the person there did not feel like one at all.

The room was large and the cream colored comfy sofa by the side of the room had no occupants on it and neither did either of the remaining furniture in the room.

My life was just as it seemed; bleak and boring.

The door opened and someone walked in. Her high heels clicking on the floor, freshly manicured hands wrapped around the man beside her and she scrunched up her nose at the smell of the antiseptic.

I forced my frail figure that occupied the room struggled to sit up in bed on noticing their arrival.

"Steph, you are here with Frank." I say, my voice weak with eyes looking towards their enjoined hands.

"Frank. Thank you for coming with Steph. She doesn't like hospitals." My voice shakes as I struggle to keep my composure.

Steph spoke her eyes bright with life, "Sister, I'm sure Dad wanted to come himself. It's just that you remind him of so much. He can't bear to lose you as well."

"Steph, don't drag it further. I know my weight in Dad's heart." I cough and watch as Steph runs to assist me to sit up.

"Frank, would you help my sister process her discharge papers please?" Steph spoke, her brown eyes turning soft at him.

I looked up at the man who stood tall at six feet with his unsmiling face as he nodded at Steph and walked out.

"You shouldn't command Frank like that. He wouldn't like it." I chided her.

"Sister, Frank is your husband. Everything he does now, he does for you." Steph batted her eyelashes coquettishly causing me to smile helplessly.

"Regardless Steph. Look at how his face was cold and his expression uninviting."

"Only the best for my sister." She argued, shaking her layered brown tresses as they sat to frame her face.

I look at Steph immaculately dressed pristine sister and forced the jealousy down her throat. I used to be like this, even better for I was the one who had taught Steph how to be excellently dressed. The heavens had a different thought for me though as I saw myself going in and out of the hospital so frequently.

Steph was staring at her phone with a smile.

"A boy?" I nudge her smiling.

"What? No." she laughed.

"Frank says that he has processed your discharge. Just so you know I am not in support of you leaving the hospital. You are not better yet!". Her shrill voice was loud causing me to shrink unconsciously.

"I know my body Steph, also the Doctors have said that they can do nothing again. I would rather rest at home."

"Did you bring the documents I asked you to?" My voice shook again as I struggled to sit on the wheelchair.

"Gra-ace"

"Do not look so bothered. All I'm giving you is 45% of the XS shares, my 15% shares of Raven goes to Charity."

"Not that. You speak as though you're dying sister. I hate to hear that." Steph's face contorted.

How can a face contorted be still beautiful?

I pause.

Steph is my sister and I never had wrong thoughts towards her. Ever. So what was this?

I miss the gleaming look in Steph's eyes as she opened her bag to present the documents.

Holding the pen steady, I sign the ownership shares away to Steph.

"I know my body, Steph." I repeat.

"Take good care of XS."

"Oh, I will." A smirk came to rest on Steph's face as she held the documents high in the air.

"Steph? I'd like to go now please"

An annoyed look crossed her face, bothering me. " Fine. Let's leave."

I cough trying to alleviate the never-ending parchedness of my throat. "You can't be annoyed that I've accepted my fate."

Steph sneered. "Accept your fate alright!".

...

I jolted awake as the vehicle hit rough ground, rubbing my hand on my forehead.

" Where are we headed? This is not the way home. Oh, the sun is setting. Isn't it beautiful Frank?"

No reply.

"Frank?"

"Don't be angry. I'm not giving up fighting. I'm just accepting...." I pause looking at the road in front of me change into a deserted dirt road.

"Frank. There are better ways to discuss this. Don't give me the silent treatment." I looked sternly.

"Shut up!."

"What?"

The vehicle was parked under the covering of several trees.

Waiting for Steph to help me out after she got out herself proved futile as nothing happened.

I took a careful look at Frank who had opened the bonnet and was working on the car.

"Did something happen to the car?" I ask Steph struggling alight from the vehicle.

A mocking laughter was her reply.

"Oh, something happened or perhaps, something will very soon."

I squeezed my face feeling a headache coming on. Steph was naturally a spoilt person and even more difficult to deal with than me.

And that is saying something, because I can be a very difficult person myself !

Though Steph was not related to me in any form, I had accepted her when my Dad remarried after my mother's passing and brought her in together with his new wife as her daughter.

Over time, Steph's spoiled and selfish personality had spread and increased, however I continually took her side believing she needed a foothold in their social class, despite annoying and stepping on so many toes for her.

So maybe she was angry I left the hospital? She wanted to protect me the way she could? A place where Medical professionals continually are?

"Look.." I move forward but then trip over a tree branch.

"Ouch" I cried, looking at my scraped leg.

From the peripheral of her vision, I could see Frank close the car bonnet and move towards me.... past me to stand by Steph.

I bowed my head feeling self-conscious. I felt pathetic being on the floor, however I had no strength left to stand.

Frank had always been cold throughout our being together, from our engagement and through the years of our marriage.

"Steph, can I have my drugs?"

"You mean this?" A cackle rang out loud in the deserted area.

She opened it and poured the pills on the ground.

"What are you doing?!" I yell frantically.

"Watch it." Frank yells at me, making me widen my eyes in surprise.

"Excuse you?" I ask annoyed.

"What do you think of this story, sister?" Steph grinned.

"You just poured my drugs away. I do not think of any story." I replied to her coldly.

"Oh, but it is your story." She mocked her brown tresses blowing across her face by the soft wind.

"What?"

"Grace Eleanor Koore, felt distraught about the news the doctors had just given her. She demanded to be discharged and left alone. Driving herself to this secluded place to think. She took the drugs and drove herself off the cliff." She pointed at the cliff in the distance with one hand.

"What did you say?" Blood was roaring in my ears. I refuse to believe such gibberish.

"Ow. You were indeed easy to trick. Such a gullible child. She had a stepmother who loved her despite her Father's obvious apathy towards her." She tsked and used the tip of her shoe to press my head into the ground.

"Oh, how I wanted to do that since Frank. To press her head into the ground where it belonged."

"Now you can do it, no-one will stop you." He looked at her adoringly.

I look from Steph to Frank. He was in it?

The man who had shown no care to me, even when I almost bled out with our baby, looked at my sister this way? Adoringly?

"I treated you as my sister." I grit my teeth and shove Steph's heels off the side of my head with my last bout of strength.

"That's the point! I'm not your sister! Everyone pointing fingers and comparing me to you! Oh, how I wanted to rip them out and shove it down your throat.

And you had the guts to tell me you didn't love Frank! Only getting married to him because Dad chose him!

He loved me even before you got engaged, sister." she mocked.

I swallow hard. I will not die by this conniving bitch hand.

"It wasn't even hard to get those drugs." She burst into laughter.

"You poisoned me?!!"

"Eh. Don't look so surprised. She really did not know any of our plans." She smiled at Frank who flicked her forehead gently and gave her a peck.

"It wasn't really our plan. Lailah got the drugs, she poisoned her and even caused the miscarriage." He patted Steph's hair.

Lailah? My best friend that I trusted above everything?!

If Stephanie was my sister, Lailah was my soulmate. Why am I surrounded by blood-thirsty vipers?

"I will curse you all with my blood." I grit my teeth struggling inwardly to keep my tears at bay.

"It does not matter you see, after all, I have what I need, and so does Lailah. She was an important piece at play. Lailah got everything prepared. Your unborn child even threatened the status of her own child."

"Oh, you didn't know. You couldn't have, after all, you were so gullible. Lailah has a son by Frank here but he's illegitimate which makes him unable to contest for inheritance."

"Too bad, you just had to go and marry the wrong person."

"And you, you are not planning on doing that?" I eye the short distance between Steph and Frank followed by a scoff.

Steph giggled and moved towards me, her mouth at my ear level.

"I told you that I have what I need. I did not mention Frank."

"XS?"

"XS is a good thing, but your mother left even more for you. Signing that, you signed everything your mother might have ever given you to me. Better things."

Fire crackled in my eyes as my mind clouded.

"I told you she would cave today." Frank said holding Steph tenderly.

"I know. I should've believed you."

In a couple of seconds, I can feel myself being strapped to the driver seat.

Fighting with all my might proved to be of no avail for I lacked strength.

"Stephanie Myers and Frank Mylelore, I curse you."

Tears running down my face, I watched helplessly as the car ran down the cliff, the brake obviously tampered with.

'Mother, I have disappointed you.'

That was my last thought as the car plummeted into the cold water.