What do you want from me? Your answer, 'The moon,' isn't specific enough. Why the moon? If you must know, the moon holds a special place in my heart. If I could visit the moon, if I could be there right now . . . if I could have you forever. . . ." I stop and try to absorb what I'm feeling. Is this love? Could it be? Does this emotion, if I let it in, have the power to change my future? Would it be fair for me to feel this if I am only destined to live one life? "I want nothing from you." I am determined to push him away. This man has manipulated me since I was ten years old. I don't need or want his help. "You can't help who you love, my princess." His voice is full of remorse as he lifts his hands from his sides and walks toward me. I want to run, but something holds me back. The only thing I can compare his presence to is the sun. I am in awe of him, of his strength, his ability to consume me without hesitation. He is my sun, the source of my existence. He is all I will ever need to live my life. Suddenly, the man looks at me with a smile. "You've never wanted anything before, have you?" I want to know if he's changed in any way. His eyes are deep, almost glowing, like fire. His voice is warm and comforting. This is how I want to feel every day. I want the man before me to make me feel this way forever. He looks at me with his deep brown eyes and I think he understands. "You've been waiting for me all your life. What else would you want?" he says and I can't speak. I can only stand there and stare into his warm eyes. "Come." He grabs my hand and leads me away from the house. "I can make you happy. Your life will be better with me." Is this where our story ends? Before I can answer him, I am woken from my trance. It's already morning. It's time to wake up before the servants arrive for their early morning meeting. "Go on, princess." He is suddenly gone and I feel weak. My legs don't want to stand up, but I do it anyway. When I reach the main living area of the house, I see my mother sitting in the chair near the window. I stand in front of her. "I need you to know this is real. I don't need anyone but you." Her eyes grow wide as if she can't believe what she just heard me say. Her hands begin to tremble as she squeezes my arm gently. "I know." I stare into her deep brown eyes and nod. "My father will be coming here soon. Tell him everything that's happened. . . ." "Hush. Not yet. I'm your mother and I will take care of you, but you're making a grave mistake by going through with this. He's the devil, Jade." I shake my head, but my mother's words don't register. "I need to make him think he's successful so that he will leave me alone. Please, Momma. Let me do this." Her face remains serious as she studies my face. "I trust you, my little girl." Tears well up in my eyes and I can barely breathe. I've never heard her say she trusted me before. "When do you think he'll get here?" "I'm not sure." She bites her lip, trying to find the right words. "We don't want him to know of your betrayal." "My mom is dead. My sister can't help me. I'm on my own." I tell her, trying not to let my voice crack. My mom nods, takes a deep breath, and turns away from me. "Do you need anything before he arrives?" "I'll have the carriage come for me at noon," I tell her as I wrap my arms around myself. The plan is clear to me now, but what's my next move? I can't just sit here and wait for someone to arrive. It could be hours or days until he comes. Time isn't on my side. What do I have to do to be the person I always imagined I would be? The plan keeps me from going mad, but how can I use this opportunity to ensure my future? I am still a little girl who is bound to meet a man on a balcony on a clear night. If my life were different, then what else would be possible? The power that he has is strong, so strong that I can't resist him. He has this ability to make me feel alive, to make me believe that I could spend my life with him. What kind of life could I have with him? I want nothing more than to stay here in this house with my mother and be the daughter she never had. I am not like the girls here; I am not their slave. I don't want to be my father's daughter. I don't want to sit quietly at the dinner table and be ignored. I want my life to have meaning. I want this to be enough. The sun is high above the horizon. I try to fall back to sleep, but it is no use. It is only going to get harder from now on, as it did before when I walked through the front door. It's not so simple now. The girls do nothing to help me, it's all my responsibility. They stare at me like I'm an alien from another planet. No one says anything but my father is more than willing to discuss things with me. His dark eyes are always on me, watching me, studying me. I don't know what he is thinking, but I know that he's looking at me and he's plotting something. I need to find a way to keep him away from this house. I have decided to hide the money in a safe. I have no other choice. He would never let me leave, or let me do anything, without it. If I do this, I might finally have a chance at some kind of life away from the house, from the man who has controlled me my whole life. I hate my father for the way he has treated me and my mother, for not telling me what is going on, for lying to me my whole life. Maybe he doesn't think about what he's doing; maybe he doesn't think about the way he's manipulating me. Maybe he really doesn't want me to go. I would say that makes him the liar but why would I say that when the truth is worse. He has made a complete fool of me. By the end of the night, I have made one hundred gold coins. It's nothing compared to the fortune that he has accumulated from his time in the army. I try not to think about my mother in a time when her daughter was not enough. "I'm going for a walk," I tell my mother as she sits down at the dining table with a book in her hands. "What time is it?" "Almost one in the morning." "You should be asleep by now." "I'm fine. I'm going for a walk." I smile at her as I pick up the book, The Origin of Beauty by a certain Lydus, and start to read. "I might be late." She glances at the clock on the wall as I walk past her. It's dark outside, and my shoes are silent on the stone stairs. "Where are you going?" she asks with her eyebrows raised. "For a walk." She stands and walks toward me as her fingers rest on my shoulder. "Jade, you must be careful." "My father can't hurt me." I pull away from her grip as I say it. I stand in the middle of the upstairs corridor, peering down the long hallway. The stone walls are cold and the floors are cold and hard. I have lived in this house all my life. I have never felt so much freedom. The hallways stretch on for miles; they look like a never-ending black pit. I always imagined that the house was a maze, but it isn't. It's like a labyrinth, which makes me wonder if the castle is alive. I'm not saying I believe in ghosts, but why does everyone have to be so afraid of something? There are no real ghosts, there is nothing here but dust and cold. If anything exists here, it's the man I saw last night. I try to find the place in the house that I was in when I was little, but I don't have any idea where that would be. When I stand at the top of the staircase, the long hallway and the walls both look identical. All the furniture in the rooms looks the same. "This place is impossible to find your way around," I say to no one. I walk slowly down the long hallway toward my room and stop when I hear the sound of someone talking quietly to herself. I have a terrible feeling that I've gone a little crazy and that it's not my mother that I heard last night. Is this woman going to try and attack me? I start to run down the hallway when I see a young girl, maybe fourteen or fifteen.