Chapter 170: Melissa’s Henious Plans
Third Person POV
Seraphina had barely slept for weeks. She’d run into the hallway shaking, crying, with her breath uneven, almost every night.
Everyone would wake up irritated and angry. They never once wondered why she was terrified. They simply assumed she had "issues", since it was because no one would believe in the term ’ghost’.
The maids started the whispers within the mansion.
"She screams for no reason."
"She even hit me when I tried to help her."
"She is delusional. We’re all tired because of her."
"I’m telling you, the new young miss will create a huge problem soon in our lives."
And Seraphina... she never defended herself. She didn’t want them to hate her more. She just lowered her head, accepted whatever punishment they decided, and forced herself to stay quiet. Sometimes they locked her in her room or they took her meals away. Sometimes they made her kneel in the hall for hours.
Her mother tried to ask her gently once, but Melissa always stepped in first, sighing deeply.
"She’s just not used to the environment. I think she doesn’t understand how to behave. Please don’t be too harsh on her."
Melissa’s soft voice only made Seraphina look more unpredictable and unstable in the adults’ eyes. Slowly, the entire household began whispering about her once again, but in the open.
"She might be dangerous."
"
She’s not normal at all.
"I bet she needs help."
Mrs. Lancaster had truly tried to bond with Seraphina. She wasn’t a warm woman by nature, but she had made an effort because Sera was, after all, the daughter she had lost long ago. She wanted to make up for that loss and wanted to be a mother for Seraphina.
But the more she tried, the more Melissa slid between them like a shadow and made things bitter between them.
Melissa always told Mrs. Lancaster that Seraphina didn’t like her, and she whispered to Seraphina that her mother couldn’t stand the sight of her.
She fed both of them lies so smoothly that neither noticed when the distance began to grow between them.
So every time they met, both mother and daughter looked stiff and uncomfortable, like strangers forced to sit side by side.
Seraphina would lower her head, twisting her fingers together, while Mrs. Lancaster would fold her arms, unsure what to say or how to read her expression.
Melissa watched them silently, pleased by her work.
And after months of this... Seraphina started to understand something was wrong with her life, even if she couldn’t put it into words.
The repeated ghost incident had driven her into a panic so severe that she could no longer sleep in her room. She cried at night, screamed at shadows, begged Melissa not to leave her alone, and Melissa used that fear like a weapon.
She suggested to Mrs. Lancaster that Sera needed a smaller room, something similar to the space in her orphanage, not even knowing that Sera had lived there all this time.
She told Mrs. Lancaster, "She’s overwhelmed by big rooms. Let her choose somewhere she feels comfortable."
But Sera hadn’t chosen anything. Melissa had already chosen for her.
The basement, a place which was a cold, dirty storage room that smelled of damp cement and mold. It was a place where no normal person could have slept, especially for a special child like Seraphina.
And when Mrs. Lancaster saw where Seraphina had been moved, she nearly exploded.
"Why would she choose this?!" she shouted as she was horrified.
Melissa stood behind her with a soft and sad expression. "She said she likes it. She wanted a room where no one would bother her. I told her you wouldn’t like it, but she insisted."
Mrs. Lancaster stared at the small mattress on the floor, the broken lightbulb, the cracked walls.
Her chest twisted with anger that she didn’t know where to place.
Should she explode at Melissa for doing this? Or at the maids? Or at herself?
Mrs. Lancaster turned away, hurt.
She had tried so hard to bring this girl home, to give her a place in the family, but all she saw now was a daughter who didn’t want her, who acted strangely, and would refuse to live in a normal room. She decided to let her live as she wanted and not tell the men in the house, as they would detest Seraphina for this.
But what she didn’t know was the fact that Seraphina was suddenly thrown into that hell of a room in her name. She was told that Mrs. Lancaster wanted her to stay there as she couldn’t stand the sight of her.
That misunderstanding turned into distance. That distance turned into frustration.
And that frustration mixed with Melissa’s whispers slowly turned into resentment.
So Mrs. Lancaster avoided Seraphina more and more. She convinced herself Sera didn’t want her warmth, her attention, and didn’t want a mother.
Seraphina, meanwhile, lived in a cold basement, shaking from fear every night, believing that she deserved it.
And Melissa...
Melissa watched everything fall apart exactly the way she wanted.
As if all of it was not enough, Melissa brought a psychiatrist, someone she had paid long in advance. The doctor watched Seraphina for barely ten minutes. He observed her fidgeting, struggling to answer quickly, her eyes darting nervously whenever someone raised their voice.
Ten minutes, and that was all it took to destroy her life.
He wrote a report filled with lies such as... Seraphina was mentally unstable. She hallucinated and was paranoid. She was a danger to herself and possibly others and needed immediate treatment.
Melissa pretended to cry when she read the report.
Mrs. Lancaster clutched her chest in pain and fury.
While Seraphina stood frozen, breath caught in her throat, tears pooling in her eyes, but refusing to fall. She didn’t know what she had done wrong. She didn’t know why everyone looked at her like she was broken beyond repair. She didn’t know why no one asked her what she felt.
