Chapter 1: The Girl Nobody Chose
There were people who believed homes were built with bricks.
Others believed they were built with love.
The Ashford Estate had neither.
It was built with marble.
White pillars reached toward the sky like monuments to perfection. Crystal chandeliers glittered beneath ceilings painted by famous artists. Every flower in the gardens bloomed exactly where it was meant to. Every servant knew their place.
Everything was beautiful.
Everything was flawless.
Everything was cold.
---
On the day Aurelia Ashford was born...
Someone else died.
Her mother breathed her last moments after giving birth to her.
The tiny infant had entered the world crying.
Her mother had left it smiling.
That same day...
The Ashford Estate lost its mistress.
And a little boy lost the person he loved most.
Adrian Ashford was only seven years old.
He didn't understand death.
He only understood that his mother would never wake up again.
---
The funeral was held beneath a sky heavy with rain.
Black umbrellas covered the estate.
The scent of white lilies filled the air.
Adrian stood silently beside the coffin.
His small hands clenched tightly together.
He didn't cry.
Not anymore.
He had cried until there were no tears left.
Nearby...
A cradle rested quietly.
Inside it slept a newborn baby.
Completely unaware of the tragedy surrounding her.
She slept peacefully.
As if the world hadn't already decided she would spend her life paying for a crime she never committed.
---
Two days later...
Victor Ashford remarried.
The guests whispered among themselves.
"So soon?"
"His wife has only just..."
"He already had another woman?"
No one dared say the rest aloud.
The woman standing beside Victor gently rested a hand over her swollen stomach.
She was nine months pregnant.
Everyone understood.
The affair had begun long before the funeral.
Her name was Isabella.
Within weeks...
She became the new mistress of the Ashford Estate.
---
From that day onward...
No one ever celebrated Aurelia's birthday.
Because it was also the day her mother died.
---
Years passed.
The mansion changed.
The people inside it changed.
Only one thing remained the same.
Aurelia was always alone.
---
When she was siyears old...
She learned not to ask where her brother was.
He had moved into the dormitory of a prestigious boarding school.
Whenever he returned home...
He greeted Victor.
He greeted Isabella.
He smiled politely at Serena.
Then...
Without ever looking toward the little girl standing quietly near the staircase...
He left again.
Not once...
Not even by accident...
Did his eyes meet hers.
---
At first...
She chased after him.
"...Brother?"
No answer.
"...Brother!"
He kept walking.
As though the voice belonged to someone else.
The servants watched in silence.
Some pitied her.
None helped her.
---
The only thing Adrian left behind...
Was something he never realized mattered.
One afternoon, before returning to school, he had been helping a gardener carry a tray of small plants.
A tiny cactus slipped from the tray.
Before it could hit the ground...
A little pair of hands caught it.
Adrian glanced at the child for only a second.
"...Keep it."
He turned around and walked away.
He never looked back.
To him...
It was nothing.
He forgot about it before the car even left the gates.
But to Aurelia...
It became the first...
And only...
Thing her brother had ever given her.
She treasured it more carefully than anything else in the world.
---
Not everyone ignored her.
Some noticed her.
Unfortunately...
They were the ones who hated her.
---
"Again."
The sharp crack of a whip echoed through the storage room.
A little girl bit her lip.
She refused to scream.
Another strike landed across her back.
Pain spread through her tiny body like fire.
Isabella lowered the leather whip.
"You'll learn eventually."
Aurelia's breathing trembled.
"I... didn't..."
Another strike.
"I told you..."
Crack.
"...not to answer back."
---
Outside the room...
Victor Ashford stood in the hallway.
He heard every sound.
Every cry.
Every strike.
His hand rested calmly inside his pocket.
He never opened the door.
After a moment...
He simply walked away.
---
Whenever Aurelia resisted...
Whenever she dared defend herself...
Whenever she refused to cry...
Isabella would smile.
Then she would quietly walk toward the little cactus resting beside the window.
"So..."
She would say softly.
"Should I throw it away today?"
Every ounce of defiance disappeared from Aurelia's face.
"...Please don't."
She would lower her head.
"I'll do whatever you want."
The cactus became her hostage.
Because it was the only proof that, once...
Her brother had unknowingly acknowledged her existence.
---
Years continued to pass.
Pain became ordinary.
Loneliness became familiar.
Silence became home.
---
At nineteen...
Aurelia Ashford had become someone impossible to understand.
She no longer cried.
She no longer begged.
She no longer expected anyone to choose her.
She was calm.
Fearless.
Independent.
Emotionally distant.
People often mistook her silence for arrogance.
They were wrong.
It was simply the shape her survival had taken.
---
Outside the estate...
The twenty-first century moved forward.
Technology advanced.
Cities grew brighter.
People laughed at old myths.
Fairies were bedtime stories.
Devils belonged in ancient legends.
Gods existed only inside forgotten books.
No one believed such beings had ever walked the earth.
Least of all...
Aurelia Ashford watered the tiny cactus one last time before closing the window.
Beyond the glass, the evening sky stretched endlessly.
She had no idea...
...that her life was already moving toward a destiny older than history itself.
---
End of Chapter 1
Even If Winter Forgets.
