150 Cursed life

"Big sis!!! Let's play!!!" screamed a young girl towards her older sister who in turn just rolled her eyes after hearing that scream.

"Not now Mia, I'm busy..." answered a slightly older girl with a tired expression.

"But you're always busy!! Come on!! Just for a bit!! Pleeeease!!" begged the little girl down on her knees with her hands united.

They were inside a large house walking down the hallways. The younger girl was pulling her sister's dress so she would give her attention while the sister was carrying a basket full of seeds towards the kitchen.

Both had skin in the tone of chocolate and hair as black as the night itself. They were wearing very expensive dresses that their father carefully picked up for them so he could show off how expensive his daughter's clothes were to his coworkers. The younger sister was twelve years old while the older one was fourteenn.

"Come on Ria!! There is no one else!!! Nobody wants to play with me anymore!!"

"Oh, gee... I wonder why..."

"I'm serious!! Bia said she needed to take the dog for a walk, which is weird because I'm pretty sure we don't have a dog..."

"A fair point, I'll admit..."

"Gia said she needed to wash her hair, like, for the fifth time today!!"

"Gia does like to make herself look good for the boys... Nothing surprising there..."

"And Lia just shut herself in her room to read her dumb books again..."

"Yeah... She hasn't been the same ever since she found out about romance novels between monsters and humans..." Ria commented after finally reaching her destination and placing her basket on the table.

"So can you please play with me?? Just for a few minutes?" Mia tried to beg again.

"I told you I'm busy, Mia... Everyone keeps running away from their work so mom and dad keep pushing it all on me just because I'm older!" Ria explained as she started to pick the bad seeds from the basket.

"But... But..." Mia mumbled as she grabbed her single ponytail and used it to wrap her face, her usual behavior for when she didn't know what to say.

"Besides, you're already twelve... Can't you play by yourself or something? Where are your friends?"

"I... I don't... Have any..."

Ria stopped picking her seeds for a while and stared at Mia after noticing her distress, "Sigh... Ok... Fine... I'll play with you once I'm done here..."

"Ahh!! Promise!!!??" Mia asked, jumping with joy.

"Sure, sure... Now go away... I need to focus..." Ria told while waving her hand.

"Thanks, big sis!! I love you!!!" Mia gave Ria a big hug and a kiss on her cheek to express her gratitude.

Mia entered the room and approached the cradle while trying not to make any sound. She felt like a burglar while moving with so much discretion.

As she approached the bed, she saw him, her barely-a-few-months old brother, Kio. The only son her father had.

Mia looked carefully at him, an adorable little angel snoring peacefully without a care in the world. He had the same skin tone as her, same hair color, same lips, same eyes, he truly was her brother. At least from her father's side, that is.

Mia's father had this really strange desire of trying to show he was better than everyone around him.

He needed to have the best clothes, the best house, the best servants, and most of all the best wives, six wives in fact.

He managed to have a kid with every single one of them, and as always, he needed to make sure he had the best kids.

While Mia adored the idea of having a big family, she could fell an air of hostility in the atmosphere every now and then. She could feel that some of the wives did not like each other much, always trying to fight to find out which one her father liked the most.

The man had affirmed many times that he had no desire on picking favorites, but they never truly bought that.

And just like the six women tried to compete with each other, her sisters would often try battle for their father's attention as well, trying to see who was the best daughter.

All except for Ria, who at times seemed like she couldn't care less about her family and just wanted to get away at the first chance she had. Mia hoped that such a day would never come to pass. She had no idea of what she would do if her sister disappeared from her life.

As Mia kept staring at her beautiful little brother, wondering if one day she would need to compete with him as well, she decided to try and give him a light touch just to feel his soft-looking skin.

But the moment she did so, the toddle started to burst into a loud cry that alerted the whole house.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!! Please stop!!" Mia begged, trying to calm him down as she could hear the footsteps of her entire family approaching.

"What are you doing to him??" asked a female voice belonging to an older woman. It was Kio's mother, her father's fourth wife. A lady that had similar features to Mia's own mother for a very specific reason but looking much angrier.

"Aunt Tula!! I'm sorry!! I just wanted to..." Mia tried to explain herself as her mother's sister pushed her away from her son.

"Stay away from him you brat!!" the woman shouted with a very heavy tone.

Mia looked at the door of the bedroom and realized that her whole family was staring at her. Her father and mother in particular were very confused about the situation.

"Mia? Tula? What happened?" asked her mother. Just like her aunt, she also had a chocolate skin and black hair, but unlike her aunt whose hair reached all the way to her waist, hers only went as far as her shoulders. Both, as always, were wearing very expensive-looking dresses.

"I just wanted to caress Kio a bit!!"

"And why is that?? What were you planning to do to him??" her aunt questioned.

Mia stared at her family, hoping that someone would be by her side, to try to defend her, to give her some aid. But all she saw was the sight of the rest of the wives snickering as if enjoying their competitor's children causing discord.

As always, none of her sisters were present, always trying to avoid each other's presence and their family's drama.

The only one who came to check the chaos was the older daughter, Ria, who was looking at Mia while trying to make sense of the situation.

Ria tried to reach for her sister in distress to calm her down but her father grabbed her shoulder and stopped her.

"Ria... Have you finished the task I gave you?" he asked.

"What? No! I came here to see what was going on!"

"Well, now you have! Go back to work!"

"But..."

"Ria!!" her father said while raising his voice.

"... Understood..." Ria whispered while shaking with fear

She slowly walked away from the room after giving Mia one last look. The remaining women followed her example and left the room as well. Her mother tried to stay but her father gave her a look that said 'Don't interfere!' and she left as well.

Her aunt Tula took her son to the living room to try and calm him down with the help of the maids after sending a small glare at Mia's direction.

Mia was now alone in her brother's room with her father, a tall man with tanned skin and blond hair and mustache inside a, as usual, very expensive-looking suit. He was looking at her with an extremely irritated expression.

"Father...? I'm... I'm sorry..." Mia tried to say, but her father simply raised his index to signal for her to be quiet.

"Mia..." he started to speak while circling around her, "are you aware that I give a much bigger number of duties for Ria than I do for any of your sisters?"

"Y- Yes father..."

"And do you know why that is?"

"B- Because..." she tried to finish but not truly knowing why her father burdened her sister so much.

"It's because I have great expectations of her... Her mother, Niara, is the daughter of a very famous duke, and mixing our bloodlines will lead to greatly improve our reputation amongst the masses..."

Mia lowered her face in depression after realizing that once again, her father was only thinking about appearances.

"However... You and your sisters are a different story... Your births were a simple matter accidental events..."

"Acci- What...?" Mia asked while raising her face with curiosity.

"To put it simply... You were all mistakes..." her father confessed while continuing to circle her with his hands behind his back.

"M- Mistake...?"

"Indeed... Your mother and I ended up getting involved simply due to my pure lack of self-control..."

"I don't understand..."

"You don't have to... All you need to know... Is that Ria and Kio... are not like the rest of you... Their births were actually planned and meant to be... While yours was just a small case of bad luck..."

Mia kept staring at her father who would not stop talking about her birth as if it was some kind of thing he would have preferred to avoid.

"I thought you loved mom..."

"Oh, I do! I love all of my wives equally! But not all of them come from a lineage that is well received by the public eye... Your mother's family comes from a long history of savages that used to worship the demons and monsters as if they were some kind of misunderstood creatures... You can see how this might raise some eyebrows from the citizens."

"Y- Yes..."

Her father then stopped walking and began to stare at a widow.

"But... The heart wants what the heart wants... Ad when I saw her beauty for the first time... Her background was the last thing on my mind..."

He then placed his hand on the wall and sighed for a bit.

"But still... At the end of the day... I needed to return to reality and face the facts..." The man proceeded to bend his knees and put one hand on Mia's shoulder, "You will probably never accomplish much in this life... Neither you nor your other sisters..."

Mia looked at her father's eyes trying to see if there was some trace of hesitation or maybe some sign that he was just joking, but he seemed dead serious.

"You are already twelve, isn't that right?"

"Y- Yes..."

"so you are probably old enough to understand how important it is to put your faith in things that will actually provide results, while not paying much effort on what clearly will not..."

"... Y- Yes..." Mia answered, while completely empty eyes.

"But with that said..." her father then raised her chin so she would look straight at him again, "Your brother as well, is a great investment that I'm placing a lot of faith on..."

"..."

"So do your best to remember not to interfere with him... Understood? I would hate to be forced to banish you from the house, when I already have so little reason to keep you close..."

"B- Banish?? For touching his face??"

"For meddling with his growth!!" he said while grabbing her cheeks with more strength, "As currently the only male successor of my fortune, I need to make sure he is as healthy as possible...And any possible issue that might interfere with it, could become a great issue in the future."

"I don't... I don't understand!!" Mia tried to say while having her mouth pressed.

"I'm not asking you to understand! I'm asking you to just stay in a corner like a good girl and try to keep yourself busy while not ruining my scheduled plans! Are you able to do that? Yes... Or no?"

"I... I..."

"Yes...? Or no??"

"... I understand father... I won't interfere anymore..."

"Good!" her father said as he finally let go of her face.

As Mia moved out of the room absolutely terrified of angering him again, she heard one last comment that completely crushed her spirit.

"Oh! That reminds me... Stop interfering with Ria as well!"

"What!!?? Why!!??"

"She's about to enter a long process of studies to prepare herself for when she joins the family business! She doesn't have time to waste with unnecessary distractions!"

"Unnecessary distractions??"

"I meant you, of course... You are a distraction for her, and you are unnecessary... Thus... Unnecessary distraction..."

Mia stared at her father with her eyes about to burst into tears and her mouth wide open. Her entire life this was probably the most she ever got to speak with the man due to him always being occupied with his busy schedule, and most of their conversation was dedicated to making him make sure she knew she just wasn't as important as her sister, nor should she try to lower her sister's importance by getting involved with her.

The man finally left the place leaving Mia to slowly walk towards her own room.

She would later find out that Ria was not allowed to play with her anymore, and a small scar started to open in her heart.