Theresa came and left with the some new measurements for Emillia while Lillian still kept trying her dress on.

Tomorrow would be Clancy's birthday and that day would be when she turns seven and only a year away from discovering her powers and deciding if she wants immortality or a mortal life.

After Tyto discovered his, he chose to be mortal.

That made Mary so mad that she flew into another rage, like she did 10 years ago, and made all the servants pay by not eating anything for two days.

About a couple of them died from hunger and Mary changed her mind and let the servants eat again.

That had been a relief but it didn't hurt Emillia for one bit since she was used to not eating for more than two days.

While she worked on the dress for Theresa, Lillian told Emillia of what had happened when Tyto chose to be mortal.

Mary wanted to use the lash that has been hanging in her room for a while but Theresa rebeled and told Mary that if she lashed at Tyto, then Theresa will use her powers to kill herself.

Mary reconciled and had the servants pay for Tyto's punishment instead of him taking it for himself.

Emillia was very confused about that but knew better than not to question her stepmother's motive.

Whatever her stepmother had planned for her kids, Emillia didn't care as long as she didn't involve her in it.

She shook her head and went back to working on the sleeve as it was a very delicate way and can't be messed up or else the dress would be ruined.

Concentrating very hard, Emillia was almost done with bring the two fabrics, of the sleeve, together when she heard Mary yell "ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING YOUNG LADY!!!!"

Fear overtook her, she jumped, and she accidently stabbed her finger with the needle instead of the fabric and blood sprouted from the wound.

Quickly Emillia went over to where the hankerchif shelf was and found one for stopping the flow of blood.

Grabbing it, Emillia and Lillian went over to the hallway and saw Mary towering over a young woman with a feirce look of rage across her face.

The woman, who was a servant, was scared and whimpering.

There is something weird about her, Emillia thought this every time Mary did this to any of the other servants.

The woman turned her head toward Emillia and she saw with a shock that it was Haline and on Haline's left cheek, there was a red handprint indicating that Mary had slapped her.

Fury overtook her as Emillia was about to think of something to say when Lillian stepped out, playing a part of Mary's spoiled rotten child instead of her rebellious one, and asked so shockingly "Mother!! What are you doing?!?!?"

Mary turned with a snarl and said angrily "Lillian!!! You are not supposed to even be out with your new dress on!!! Take it off and place it back in Emillia's care!! You stupid no good idiotic girl!!!"

"Hey!!" shouted a voice and everyone turned to it and saw that, that voice came from Emillia.

"You have no right to talk to your own daughter like that Mary!!! For years I have put up with you and your rages, but doing this to your own child is not nice and is considered cruel and abusive!!!" yelled Emillia.

Haline smiled at her own cousin for standing up for her own step-sister.

That just fumed Mary and she went over and slapped Emillia so hard that she fell on the floor clutching her left cheek.

"I have just about had it with you, Whitress!!!" yelled Mary before she could even stop herself from saying the word Whitress.

The word hung in the air and ice cold flooded into the lungs of everyone as they had kept Emillia's secret for so long from Mary.

"Emillia is not a Whitress," said Lillian after breaking the moments silence, "That is just a legend mom. Now if you slap another servant then I have a spell right here in my pocket to make sure that whenever you slap someone, you will slap yourself."

Mary looked at her own child of her own blood saying breathlessly "You wouldn't dare!!"

Lillian's innocent face changed into a face full of rage saying "Yes I would, cause you don't know what I am capable of."

This just made Mary madder and she just stormed away from the hallway with everyone breathing out with a sigh of releif.

Emillia stood up with tears in her eyes thinking All the hiding my powers, the lying, keeping my emotions in control, it was for nothing. She knew all along!!!

Haline, hearing her thoughts, went over to her cousin and wrapped her arms around her in an embrace that no one has ever done with her before.

Emillia returned it and heard Haline whisper "Thank you for helping out and yes she did know but it wasn't for nothing. You just stood up for what you believe in Emillia and you deserve a break. Go and have fun, wherever you go and I will cover up for you."

She nodded her head in agreement knowing that it was stressing her out so much that she just couldn't hold back her words anymore.

Coming out of Haline's embrace, Emillia left the house and ran into the woods.

She kept running and running not knowing that Tyto and Clancy were behind her.

Finally she came to a stop, seeing a huge tree in front of her and built into that tree, was her very own tree house that she and her father had built before Mary had came into their lives.

Sometimes whenever she would get a break or she was just stressing out to much, Emillia would always come to the tree house to calm down.

Quickly Emillia climbed the ladder and came into the treehouse.

It was a 9 by 9 foot sqaure inch treehouse with a bed on there and a table with three chairs meant for her, her father, and her mother.

It was also covered with dust that has been setting there for about a month now cause it's almost been about maybe a month or two since she last cleaned it.

Emillia grabbed the broom and swept the place up cause the reason she kept it clean was to remind her of her father and her happy memories that she had had with him before he left.

After the floor was cleaned, she dusted the room making sure that it was at least nice.

She felt like she owed it to her father.

(I mean, sure she didn't clean it perfectly but at least it looked nice.)

Once everything was done, Emillia flopped onto the bed and thought about taking a nap when a sound interrupted her.

She jumped to her feet and ready herself with a broom to make whoever it was, out there, go away.

The door on the floor, that she had came in through and closed earleir, opened and standing there was Tyto.

"Tyto? What are you doing here?" asked Emillia confused.

"Sis and I followed you here and saw you come up here cause we were very concerned of what had happened in the hallway," replied Tyto.

"Sis? Who is with you Tyto?" Emillia asked again.

"Clancy," replied Tyto again, "Can we come in cause the both of us are very tired."

"Oh, of course Tyto," said Emillia forgetting her manners and placing the broom away, "Clancy you can come on up."

"Okay," a small voice, none other than Clancy herself, replied.

Quickly Emilia helped Tyto and Clancy inside and closed the door behind them.

"So this is the treehouse that you always run to? If I am correct," said Tyto looking around.

"Yes you are correct Tyto. This treehouse is the one thing that Mary doesn't know about and it used to belong to my father and I when we had both built it together. But now it just serves as a reminder of the happy memories that I used to have before Mary wormed her way into our lives," replied Emillia.

"Oh and how many times have you came here whenever Mary made you mad?" asked Clancy.

"A lot Clancy and it's not whenever Mary makes me mad, it's whenever I just have to much of this stress building up on me and it just makes me feel like the weight of the town is hurting on my shoulders and back." replied Emillia.

"Wow, when does that happen?" asked Tyto.

"Often alot but usually not much though. In fact, it's been about a month since I was last here," replied Emillia looking out the one window, her father had built into the treehouse, and felt the breeze of the wind gushing through making her bright yellow hair flow behind her as if she was riding on a horse away from the horrid place that Mary had taken over.

"Can we stay here the night before we go back Emillia?" asked Clancy.

Emillia thought about this, turned around, and nodded her head saying "Yes Clancy, you can stay here but we have to be back at the house before dawn or Mary will be suspisous of this."

It didn't matter to Mary right now cause she didn't care and she was placing her plan into action more faster than ever cause once when she said that word, Emillia knew that she knew about her powers.

Time was being wasted going slow, so Mary had to speed up the process before the ball or she will have to wait until the next ball.