"YOU CAN be quite desperate, Lady Victoria. Are you that afraid to lose Cory? Wake up. You will never own him not until you will take the risk of trusting someone. But looking at you, you're just a scared little girl who chose to abandon him first just because you're afraid of being betrayed."

What Tessa said haunted Tori that night. She was sitting on her bed and no amount of Chamomile Tea could appease her troubled mind. All of her handmaidens retired already. The estate was eerily silent but her mind was in chaos.

Trusting someone, huh?

Staring at her canopy as she lay on her bed, Tori remembered her life as Talia the moment she closed her eyes

FLASHBACK...

TALIA WATCHED with fervent curiosity as some middle school students rushed past her. They all looked happy as they snickered with each other from some sick joke between them that they only knew. Talia walked faster away from the scene that reminded her of everything she did and will never have.

Opening the door with her spare key, Talia walked inside the deserted single-space apartment that she and her mom rented for quite some time now. She went straight to the kitchen only to find a mountain of bills on the table. With the way they were scattered, Talia knew that her mother locked herself up again inside their restroom.

Glancing for a clean towel, Talia took notice of the kitchen knife's absence. She already knew the drill. If her mother could not handle the stress, she would lock herself up somewhere to inflict some self-harm. Talia was already immune to this since she was little. Before, she would freak out watching her gentle mom going outside from god-knows-where with a lot of blood oozing from her hand. But now, she realized that her mom did not want to die but she wanted to numb the stress that took a toll on her.

Judging from the tons of letters on the table, Talia knew she had to brace herself for a major problem.

With a clean white towel in her hand, Talia knocked on the door of their restroom. She pressed her left ear into the door and she heard a sound on the other side. "Mom, I got some towels for you. I will also leave the first aid outside. Just come out if you're hungry. I brought some food from work."

Talia, though she's still a middle school student, the local library took her as the librarian's aid. She needed this as a referral in the future since she's aiming for Princeton.

After she set the table, Talia saw her mother. "Hey, sweetie. How's school?" Just like any other day, she got the infamous warm smile that could fool anyone except her. She knew that her mother was suffering from depression. Her mother wore a knitted sweater to cover up her arms where she liked to cut herself.

Talia returned her mother's smile. She saw how her mother avoided looking at the sorted enveloped beside her."The usual, mom. Hmm, these fish 'n chips are the best, I tell you."

Talia wanted to crack up with how they looked like they were playing pretend inside a big dollhouse. A third person's view of how they interacted with each other would believe that there's nothing when everything around them was wrong, a clinically depressed mother with an equally fake child.

"So, what's inside the letters, mom?" Talia made it seem like she was just asking about the weather as she kept on digging her food. In her peripheral vision, she observed her mother freeze for a moment.

Her mother cleared her throat first before she spoke with careful words as if Talia would snap, which was something that would never happen. Talia would rather keep all her heartaches inside her than lashed it all out. She disliked how her mother lashed all of it in a confined space as if it would protect Talia. Instead, it only made her realize that she needed to be strong not just for her but also for her mother.

"I got fired and all of these bills keep on coming. I don't know what to do anymore, sweetie. I'm sorry mommy failed you."

Talia gave her mother the smile that her mother needed to see. She gave her the I-am-all-right smile like she always did. "I saved up some money, mom. We can use it while you're searching for another job."

Relief flooded her mom's eyes. The chair got knocked down when her mom rushed to her side to hug her lovingly. Her warmth enveloped Talia, reminding her that she made the right decision.

"But you're saving it for high school."

Talia tapped her mother's hand as if assuring her crying mother who was on the verge of breaking down. "I still got months before high school, mom. I can save up again."

It's a lie. Talia saved that amount of money for a year for high school. She needed to buy a laptop. But Talia guessed she needed to endure her shame while borrowing the librarian's laptop for a while.

THE WEEKS PASSED AND her mother failed to get a job. Talia knew that her mother was doing her best since the latter kept on going out to search for jobs even outside their town.

It was late and the cold night breeze made Talia's steps double. Ever since that day when her savings were used to pay their bills, she was not able to save up again. All her daily paycheck would go straight up to their daily bills and her mother's expenses whenever she went out to find a job. So Talia decided to work in the burger junction just right across from the local library.

Good old Darcy accepted her as a dishwasher working four hours after her shift from the local library every day.

Talia was already used to this routine since she and her mother only relied on each other to survive. It was already cemented in her young mind that to survive she needed to rely on herself. She got no choice but to move forward.

Talia already got a roadmap for her entire high school years.

Since it was already late at night, Talia scrunched her brows when she heard that her mom was still awake as she opened the door. Careful not to make a noise, Talia walked without noise to surprise her mom with the food she brought only to get surprised to see a couple making out on the kitchen counter.

The two were so engrossed with what they were doing that they did not notice when Talia walked slowly to hide from their vision. Her back was against the wall as she listened to the pleasured voice of her mother. "Pete, you should go. My daughter will be here any minute now."

The man only replied with a groan of protest which was followed by a series of moans from her mother. "Your lovely daughter can wait for all I care but this can't wait."

"My daughter can't know this."

"But you're pregnant, Maggie. Leave your daughter and come with me. Or better yet, I will move here. That would be great. Your lovely daughter will work harder for her new sibling and father."

"But Talia is barely a teen. I have to find a way."

"Stop your pretenses. You used the money for the bills to pay for our drug. What's the difference?"

Talia remained passive as she listened to what was transpiring behind her back. With the way things are and how the two exchanged opinions with one another, she concluded that this thing was going on for some time now.

Slowly gaining back her senses, Talia walked slowly to the door. For her, everything around her was closing in and fading out. The next thing she knew, she was already outside their house and on her way to the nearest playground. Talia did not mind the cold as she walked like a robot towards the freezing metal swing.

The paper bag was still in her hands and her stomach was protesting but she only stared ahead like the slide was the most interesting thing in the world. And with no one to lean on, Talia leaned on the swing as she bottled up all of her feelings from the betrayal of her mother.

Talia wished for someone at the moment. She wished for someone to tell her that someone got her back. She wished for someone to tell her that everything will be alright.

But years passed and that someone never came. Everyone loved her social standing as she became the queen bee of St. Martin's High School, but no one could be trusted. To be on top of the social chain, Talia needed to claw her way to the very peak. It became hard for her to separate friends and foes until she stopped using the word 'friend'.

Happiness became a faraway concept for Talia. One time, Gemini binge-watched the Thorny Crown Netflix Series when Talia slept over at Gemini's house. She loathed Victoria Rozenreff's penchant for familial love, sisterly love, and romantic love that led her to the bitter end.

Talia already knew that prince charming on a white horse was a joke. She lived her life relying on herself and trusting herself alone.

"To trust means giving that someone permission to betray you, there's no need to trust anyone just to succeed. You only got to rely on yourself." Talia's life motto up to the day she died on a fateful night.

END OF FLASHBACK...