The day of Aveline's execution arrived, cold and grim. She was dragged from her cell to the center of the dungeon, where her entire family stood waiting. Her heart sank as she realised that they, her own family, would carry out her punishment. Viscount Harry's face twisted in rage, his eye blazing as he looks upon her. "For seventeen years, we gave you shelter, food, everything you needed to live," he spat, his voice filled with disgust. "And is this how you repay us? Jealousy and cruelty towards your sister, poisoning her out of spite."

Viscountess Diana's looked Aveline up and down in filth. "You're nothing like Emilia," she said. "She's everything a daughter should be - beautiful, intelligent, a true Thorne. You, on the other hand, are a stain on this family name." Aveline felt the words cut deep, a reminder that her legitimate siblings, she had never been given an education or the same opportunities. Her whole life, she had been kept on the outskirts, unworthy of even basic consideration.

With desperation clawing at her, Aveline fell to her knees and pleased, her voice breaking "Father, mother, please believe me. I didn't poison Emilia. She did it herself and paid the staff to frame me. She told me so herself." But her father's response was swift snd brutal- a sharp slap that left her cheek burning. "Even now, you lie and try to twist the truth, blaming Emilia, the real victim," he shouted.

Her brother, Henry, looked at her with a sneer, "Pathetic. Trying to drag Emilia down to save yourself."

At the father's signal, the guards seized her arms, trying her tightly to a wooden post. Viscount Harry took a cane in hand, his knuckles white as he delivered the first strike. Pain seared through Aveline's body, but he did not stop. He struck her again and again, fury in each blow, each word he'd thrown at her reinforced by the cane's bite. When he was spent, Henry stepped foward to take his turn, a twisted satisfaction in his eys as he whipped his half sister.

Aveline could feel her skin breaking, blood soaking through her clothes. Her entire body trembled, each movement a new wave of agony. As she endured the blows, she caught sight of Emilia standing beside her mother, wrapped in Viscountess Diana's protective embrace. A smug smile played on Emilia's lips, her face a picture of delight at her sister's suffering.

In that moment, Aveline's heart shattered. The sister she had once trusted, the one she has loved and admired, had betrayed her in the cruelest way possible. How foolish she had been, believing in Emilia's kindness all those years. Her body weakened, her spirit worn down, Aveline felt her consciousness fading. Darkness crept into her vision, cold and consuming. In her final moments, a spark of something deeper, something ancient, flared within her--a desperate hope, a wish for another chance to rewrite her fate.

As darkness engulfed her, she whispered silently to the void, promising that, if given a chance, she would return and take back what was stolen from her.