Other Side Fairytales

2.1: Chapter 1

There once lived two sisters - Alyssa and Daniella. They were plain and ordinary as ever but they had a loving mother and a loving father. They lived modestly, and couldn't afford riches and delicacies often, but their family was all they needed.

But then, their father fell in with the wrong crowd. He started gambling away all their meagre savings. He started coming home late at night drunk. He got fired from his job. And their mother had to work double shifts as a maid to make up. But it wasn't enough. Thanks to their father's gambling, they soon were deep in debt.

It came to no one's surprise when the mother and father divorced. There was little love lost in the end. He was merely a drain on her income. She was ruining his fun. But the girls were close with their father and were utterly devastated.

Their mother still worked hard with double shifts trying to repay all their debts, and would come home utterly exhausted. Despite her best efforts, she spent less and less time with her daughters, waking before dawn for work and returning home well after midnight. Only a couple words were exchanged between them each week.

However, they had a stroke of luck. Somehow, the mother managed to catch the eye of her wealthy employer, a merchant. Within months, they were married.

He was a widower and had recently lost his wife to a terrible illness. He had only one child, a daughter, and she meant the world to him. She was his everything. Her name was Ella.

When the two girls became his stepdaughters, he treated them well, as any dutiful stepfather would. But he never gave them as much attention as his daughter. They were never as good as his true daughter.

Their mother, now no longer needing to work, tried to spend more time with her daughters, but too much had happened, and she hadn't there for any of it. Alyssa had grown into nearly an adult, at 16 years, and the other was a teenager, 13 years old.

They had grown up, with virtually no parents.

Alyssa watched Ella with her father, happy as could be, without a care in the world, and no want unanswered. She saw Ella with a family. A family she could never have. Even her mother seemed to discard her daughters that had suddenly grown up without her in favour of the young, beautiful one. And she grew jealous, shunning Ella, ignoring her. Her younger sister followed suit.

And then, another tragedy struck. Ella's father was killed by pirates on one of his trading trips. Leaving Ella with Alyssa, Daniella and their mother.