3: Blame Chooses it's Victims.

It had been several years since the adoption of Stephanie White, and in those years, many questions had been brought up. One of them was why Victoria had decided to adopt Stephanie when she already had a real daughter by the name of Fiona. Stephanie was made the only servant of the mansion, forced to spend each day polishing each fragile item, wash every car and dish and carpet, and scrub the floor of every room in the enormous premise. All except for one, which was locked and forbidden to everyone except for Victoria. Nobody knew what went on in that room, and if anything but Victoria went in, it never came out.

It was early afternoon one day and Stephanie was on her hands and knees getting stains out of carpets, stains that Fiona had deliberately spilt. She loved to see Stephanie hurt, probably because Victoria was as cruel to her as she was to Stephanie, and Fiona needed to take her frustration out on the a "low-life" servant.

"STEPHANIE!"

Victoria screamed from down the hall. Stephanie braced herself, her jaw was still purple from when Victoria had thrown a glass ornament at her face and Stephanie was trying her best to avoid any more abuse. Victoria slamed her way into the room, screaming,

"Stephanie what have you done to my corset? Look at this!"

throwing the black garment onto the floor, it looked as if it had been set alight and then stamped upon. Stephanie noticed Fiona giggling behind her mother, of course.

"Mother, I'm sorry!"

"Sorry isn't going to cut this, Stephanie. I'm going to a ball tonight, and I expect this corset to be fixed by then. Or else."

"I will fix it by then, I promise, I promise!"

Was all that she could say to stop Victoria's rage. She knew she didn't do it, but she also knew that if she confronted Fiona, more than just her jaw would be swollen and bruised. She attempted to tell Victoria about Fiona once before. But she ended up taking it back and taking even more blame, hoping Victoria would stop pounding her fists upon Stephanie's bloody body.