CHAPTER 1: SICKLY PRINCESS

"Cough. Cough."

She weakly placed her hand against her chest as she coughed softly without making too much sound.

Her chest could be seen heaving from the action of coughing she had just done, despite the heap of fur and fluffy blankets that covered her.

She lay on top of an adjustable bed, which was equipped with several life support machines.

The monitor screen on the other side of the bed was showing several readings that she couldn't understand or never bothered to understand.

After being accompanied by the machines for nearly fifteen years, she just wanted to see everything vanishing before her eyes.

How could she love seeing the same machines that reminded her every single second that her life was slipping away? 

She had been reminded of her impending death from the very day she fell unexpectedly that day when she was just eight years old and now with only three months remaining, the deadline of her short life approaching, she couldn't wait to leave the bed and explore the world.

"Miss, are you feeling, okay?" Ava, her nurse, asked softly as she approached the bed.

Zara turned her head to look at Ava with effort, the nurse who had accompanied her for eight years now.

Ava was the third nurse she had ever since she got hooked on the life-support machine. She was also the one that stayed with her for a long, and her favorite nurse as well.

Ava knew what to say, not to say, what to do and what not to do.

Since she knew that she was dying, Zara hated being reminded of how sickly she was. It wasn't like she didn't know about that fact. So why would someone remind her of that?

She wasn't paying them to make them torture her in her house with her own money. How could people be so vile and ungrateful?

"It's fine. Just a small cough," she weakly and slowly responded with a smile that made anyone who looked at her feel pity and trouble upon seeing it.

Zara was very pale. Someone could see as long her blood veins as the clothes were removed, though that was something that would only happen when she was having a full body bath.

Maybe it was due to her staying indoors for years and also for being sick without ever getting well for once.

Besides, she was also born with a fair skin tone that could easily get burned. Just like her mother, Lena, she had these beautiful blue eyes which made her look very cute, especially with how small her body was despite being twenty-two years old.

She was born with beautiful auburn hair and yet at the age of twelve; she woke up with a head full of white hair.

It was another strange thing apart from her mysterious illness that happened to her. It was unexplainable and with time; she decided to never bother with those mysterious issues that haunt her anymore.

"That's a relief then!" Ava said with relief upon hearing that.

At least in her eyes, Zara was doing much better when compared to how she was one month before.

There was even life in her eyes, and she was no longer cutting her sentences as she used to since she had problems breathing.

Zara had to keep the oxygen mask on her the whole day because of breathing issues, but now she could spend three hours without it and showed no signs of having a seizure.

One month ago, Ava feared for the worst when she found Zara taking the mask off. She was so scared that she weakly fell to the ground, afraid of what Zara was up to.

It was normal for terminally ill patients to have crazy thoughts and Ava was afraid that the rumors and scorn from the outside had found their way into the enclosed villa where Zara had been staying indoors for nearly fifteen years.

However, to her greatest surprise, even after taking the mask for an hour, nothing major happened to her. Seeing that, Ava felt that it was a miracle and wanted to share the good news with Zara's parents, but she stopped her.

At that time, she had said, "Let us not be happy so soon. Who knows what might happen to me in the next hour?"

After Zara said that to her, Ava continued to monitor Zara, and the hours kept on increasing. And now the best she could do was three hours, which was much more than she could ever hope for.

"I heard my eldest brother talking earlier. Did he bring more guests for dad, again?" Zara asked softly, as her gaze remained on Ava.

"Yes, the eldest young master brought a foreign guest today. From what I have heard, he is from the kingdom of Rozinya," Ava responded with a smile as she recalled the gentleman she had seen earlier when talking to Emma, the nanny.

"Oh! It's a pity I won't be able to see him. Is he handsome? Can he compare to Quinn?" Zara despite being a weak state, curiously asked Ava.

"He is quite handsome. Just very cold. I think that its better to stay away from him as far away as possible!" with a determined expression on her face, Ava seriously said.

"Hehe, don't worry. I don't have time to go around looking at faces. Anyway, is everything already sorted out?"

Ava nodded her head with a smile as she recalled the recent trouble that her young miss had stirred that shook the whole mansion.

"Yes. And nanny Emma is at the mansion checking to see if everything is alright, right now," Ava happily said to Zara as she thought of the things that just arrived that her young miss had been looking forward to receiving for a month now.

Upon hearing that, a smile blossomed on Zara's face, jubilant to hear such good news.

"And my brother. Where is he? I haven't heard from him in a week now," she asked worriedly as she thought of her brother, the only sibling of hers that she was fond of the most.

Upon hearing her young miss's question, Ava guiltily evaded her gaze as she responded, "The young master told us that he will join you in a week or so. He is afraid of returning to you once he sees you, so he said he won't be calling."

When Zara heard that, her face brightened up. Although she could tell that Ava had just evaded her gaze earlier and was keeping something from her, she decided to forgive her.

If her brother didn't instruct Ava to do that, Ava wouldn't dare lie to her. So, for the sake of her brother, Zara decided to let go.

"Fine, then."

Ava heaved a sigh of relief when she saw that her young miss had bought what she had said. Her young Miss, despite her gentle countenance, could turn into an evil stepmother mode at any second once provoked.

She was a deadly sickly princess, something that only those very close to her were well aware of.

"Tell my father that I need everything done by tomorrow. In two days, I will be leaving and there better be no tricks!" Zara coldly instructed in a domineering manner, completely opposite to the gentleness she had emitted a moment earlier.

"Yes, Fifth Miss. I will pass on the message. And your mother?" Ava asked hesitantly while stealing a peek at Zara.

Zara frowned a bit as she thought of her mother.

"Keep her away from me when I leave. I don't want to see her!"

Upon hearing that, Ava began to have a foreboding feeling.

Just what exactly was the young miss up to?