Chapter one:

If she were to hear me now, she might kill me, she thought, No, what am I thinking? She wouldn’t be capable of something like that, would she...?

THREE YEARS PREVIOUSLY

Sparrow's buttery fingers nearly dropped the milk she was pouring into her cereal bowl. "W-what?" she stammered.

Jonathan's eyes pleaded as he repeated his rehearsed confession, "I'm... married to Lavinia Wader, our next door neighbor.  She's moving in on Tuesday and she will be coming over to visit us in a couple of hours..."

Sparrow shut her gaping mouth. Jonathan had gotten married to their neighbor and hadn't told her, his own daughter.  She took a deep breath and calmed herself down.  At school she was known as the ice princess.  Sparrow was the queen of keeping cool. And the empress. And the duchess. She lifted her head and spoke evenly, "Okay, I'll be upstairs if you need me."

Jonathan's eyes widened and the sweat on his brow noticeably increased. Sparrow coolly rose from her chair, left the table, and silently climbed the stairs to her bedroom. After the door shut, the calm and collected Sparrow turned into a chaotic, unkempt shell of a girl. It seemed like there was nothing left of her.  Her head was still in the process of calculating what her father had said only a few seconds ago, "I'm married...to Lavinia Wader," echoed in her mind. Her watering eyes wandered across her wall until she spotted a small photograph. Rushing over to it, she carefully peeled it off the wall.

A woman with unruly red hair wearing a rather large blue dress was holding a small child; her. What felt like the last of her family was carefully cupped in her hands. But now it was being shred apart, bit-by-bit. It was being ripped out of her very being, by someone whom she had trusted her entire life. But she started to realize that he was not the only person taking part in this. All of her anger at her father was now being directed at this evil woman who was already starting to take over their lives. She must have tricked him into this, she thought. Sparrow could almost imagine her sly neighbor coming over to their house while Sparrow was gone. Walking through the door sweetly asking if she could stay for a cup of Lemonade... "You should have stayed in hell!" Sparrow screamed. She had never felt such a tight anger swallow her up. She was planning to do awful things to the monster that had waltzed into her life and was now ripping it apart. She wanted to make her new mother feel what she was feeling right now, by pulling out her heart. Her screaming thoughts turned suddenly silent by a small noise outside the door.

“Knock-knock~" sang a small breezy voice as the knob slowly turned and her door swung open revealing a tiny beautiful woman clutching a knife in her hand. Sparrow’s eyes narrowed.  The odds of her escaping and getting to the police were being calculated at lightning speed in her head.  The woman, who Sparrow knew to be Lavinia Wader, seemed to realize Sparrow’s pointed glare was aimed at the small knife in her hand.  Lavinia glanced at the knife and seemed to be as surprised as Sparrow had to see it there.  She shot a knowing smile at Sparrow.  “Oh dear, I must have forgotten it was there.  You see, I have a bit of a memory problem, but don’t you worry I am getting help. I won’t forget the big things like you or your father’s names, just the small things like what size shoes you wear,” she paused for a moment and closed her eyes, “oh bother, I seem to have forgotten why I came up here!” her eyebrows pulled together then a smile crept back on her small face and her eyes snapped open once again, “I remember now!  I just came up to ask if you wanted a bit of cheese and crackers for a small snack, while your father makes us some supper?”  Sparrow looked the woman up and down.  She was very small in height and surprisingly young.  Jonathan was not an old man but he was in his mid-forties and Lavinia looked to be in her early-thirties.  Sparrow stopped to think about this situation... something wasn't right…but it was just a feeling. She looked back up to Lavinia and shot an icy grin full of false innocence to her.

"Would you like some help with the...snack that you were preparing?" she said in an icy voice.

What a clever girl! She can see through me as if I were transparent, Lavinia thought as she answered Sparrow's grin with a chuckle. This might be fun...