Written by **EYRAM**
After the grueling experience, the young couple decided to name one of the little girls Seraphina, which meant adventurous, curious, and wild, while the other girl was called Serena, which meant calm and settled, the calm after the storm, based on the exact time they were born.
That day, Anne could not even walk due to the gruelling experience of childbirth, sleeping on the bed as Jack brought her meals to her and practically kept her engaged the whole day. Days passed swiftly, and soon they were back in school.
In the mornings, they would send the girls to Anne's parents, and after school, they would pick them up and send them home, but soon Jack dropped out of school and took up the position of Earl in the Envy castle. Then, they were practically set for life.
He stayed at home and dealt with home matters while he received a huge amount monthly for doing practically nothing, allowing Anne to focus solely on school.
Not too long after she experienced a meteoric rise in academics, which was just continuously moving up, Den Ridge University sent her a letter stating they wanted her to transfer to the university, but there was the problem of it being too far.
She confronted Jack about it, and he gave her the go-ahead to go through with it. When getting married, they did not let it get in the way of education and work. Besides, Den Ridge was the world-recognized best school in the world; he would not let her miss it.
Soon, they sorted out the finer details of their separation. Anne would take Seraphina with her, while Jack would keep Serena over at his place. They said their final goodbyes while parting, each of them keeping a child who was just a baby at the time.
The days rolled by, and soon the girls were both six years old, they just started elementary school, and while Serena went to a ballet class afterwards, Seraphina was just too mischievous. She was as agile as the gale and hated restrictions, but martial arts kept her occupied.
Anne became an established writer, but Jack kept supporting her financially despite her stability. And hence she could afford to educate Seraphina at the best school geographically desirable.
They were living okay, but wanted to reunite. A married couple could only stay apart for so long. Anne packed their clothes as she decided to move to Ravensville.
But unfortunately, at the airport, she passed out. Luckily, she was rushed to the hospital, and there she was diagnosed with Anorexia, a condition characterized by fatigue and loss of blood-
After that day, life took a turn for the worse, and Anne could not handle the mischievous Seraphina anymore, so Jack brought Serena over to visit her mother.
After a few days, Seraphina's teachers told him she might not get promoted if she did not report to school, so that was when they made the switch, Anne keeping Serena while Jack took Seraphina.
And before they knew it, they started to grow apart. When Anne was first diagnosed, he was responsible for everything, from expenditures to daily to-do lists, but eventually he started to show more focus and support towards his side of things, and Anne just felt neglected.
She had gotten married to him, she gave birth to his children, and now that he had the stronger child, he did not even pay her hospital bills.
At the time, Serena was only 10 years old. After a year, Jack lost contact with Anne, and her finances bottomed out. Serena got a scholarship to attend Den Ridge, the middle school, and her mother was especially proud of her.
But the burden of her hospital bills was also imposed on this young girl, who had to focus on her education, but instead, she was always freelancing or doing a part-time job.
5 years later
It was Serena's birthday, on this day she would turn 16, She woke up during the early hours of the dawn before the sun's first rays descended upon the earth and did her morning routine, basic stretching, bathing and brushing then dressing and afterwards she went to the library, until it was daybreak and she had to go to class on her simple bicycle.
She ate the usual for lunch, porridge, and then did part-time jobs after school. She had just finished writing exams, and the next day, she would officially go on spring break. Lately, she had been late on a few deposits to the hospital and wanted to make up for it by working overtime during spring break.
That day after work, she went to visit her mom, where she met a lewd doctor, who had some pretty obscene demands, asking her to sleep with him, so that he would pay her mom's hospital bills. She rejected him, but he tried to forcefully undress her, and she ran away to the safety of her dorm.
The next day, while she went about the same routine, she noticed stares at her from everyone. At school, she was cooking for the third year's graduation party, which was something she had been doing since her first year to generate extra income.
And that was when she saw it on the headlines of the local newspaper, "Most Promising Den Ridge Female Student Uses Her Body As Bribe." Tears welled in her eyes as she looked at the fine print, finding the one who wrote it was none other than the girl she called her best friend.
While she served dishes, her classmates continuously made remarks about her, despite all of her suffering to pay those bills; this was the treatment she received. When the event was over, and she went to check her results, all her report card said was "expelled due to media image."
And just like that, she lost her scholarship and probably her chance to earn another one. On that day, she felt too tired to continue working and therefore she went to visit her mother only to get broken on the inside out.
Her mom was dead, not because she could not hang on longer, but the doctor who told her to sleep with her wanted revenge, blaming Serena for the scandal, and that was when something within her snapped.