I woke up as the sun was starting to rise. There was still no sign of my sisters or my stepmother. I got up, stretched, and walked back into the house. I walked to the kitchen and sat down staring at nothing. I was bored, but I had nothing to do. Finally, I heard the door open.
I got up and quickly walked towards the entry hall. When I got there, I was surprised to see not only my sister and my stepmother, but also the count, the duke, and the prince.
"Hello?" I said to the group.
"We need to talk" Anthony said.
"That's never good" I mumbled.
"What was that?" He asked me.
"Nothing" I quickly replied. He continued to suspiciously look at me.
"Never mind that. We have news. It involves the whole family" Laney interrupted.
"Including me?" I asked her.
"I did say the whole family" Laney repeated.
"Stepmother too?" I asked.
"Yes. Although after what she's done, she doesn't deserve to be called family" Lele said glaring at her mother.
"What has she done?" I asked.
"Let's sit down before we tell you" Laney suggested. With that, we all began to walk to the drawing room. We soon reached it and I tentatively sat down on the edge of one of the couches. It had been a long time since I had been allowed to sit in here.
"Just relax" Laney said sitting beside me. Lele sat on my other side and pushed me farther onto the couch.
"So, what is it that you need to tell me?" I asked them.
"She doesn't own the house" Lele bluntly stated pointing at her mother.
"What?" I asked in confusion.
"The will your father left. The house, the money, everything, it didn't go to her" Laney said.
"Then who did it go to?" I asked them.
"It went to us. Your father divided everything up among the three of us. Including the property. This whole time, she has been the one that has nothing. We've owned everything. She used us and our naive minds. She made us believe that she owned everything so that we'd listen to her. She forced you to be a servant. She made Lele and me work to have her acknowledge us as daughters. She even drove us apart. She did all of it by lying to us" Laney ranted.
"So, together we own the house? Then what does she have?" I asked.
"A title. That's the only thing that she rightfully owns" Laney said.
"This whole time? So I've been working day and night for nothing? She never had the right to cut down mother's tree then" I suddenly realized.
"Apparently I didn't do a good enough job of cutting that useless thing down. Somehow it's still standing. I was sure I had chopped it in half" My stepmother grumbled.
"My fairy godmother fixed it. It doesn't really matter right now. This whole time you've lied to us. Why?" I asked her.
"Fairy godmother?" Anthony exclaimed. I jumped in my seat forgetting that he had been here the whole time.
"I forgot you were here" I admitted to him.
"What about us?" The duke asked. I jumped again and saw him standing off to the side with the count.
"I forgot about both of also" I confessed.
"I did too" Lele admitted.
"As did I" Laney said.
"I suppose we aren't important to them then" the duke said.
"This is insulting" Anthony commented.
"And I thought we bonded last night" the count complained.
"I only met you last night" Lele exclaimed.
"And I told you that I don't need or want a man" She added.
"Not even a count?" He asked.
"You may be a count, but a title won't win her over" I answered for Lele.
"I don't believe we've met. I'm Adrian" he introduced himself.
"Cinderella" I said.
"Laney" Laney added.
"Alexander" he said. We all stared at him.
"What? We weren't going around stating our names?" He asked. None of us could argue with that since we had been going around introducing ourselves.
"Well it's nice to meet both of you" I said to them.
"You already know me though" Alexander stated.
"I suppose I do" I said. Then, my stepmother cleaned her throat very loudly and rudely.
"Yes?" I asked her.
"We were discussing why I lied before you went and introduced yourselves" she reminded the group.
"Right. I blame the author, she needed to make the part longer. You lied about everything for so long. Why did you do it?" I asked.
"What did you just say?" Anthony asked.
"Why did you do it?" I repeated.
"No, before that" he asked.
"You lied about everything for so long?" I tried again.
"Before that" he said again.
"Right?" I asked.
"After that" he said.
"I'm afraid I can't remember" I honestly said.
"It was something weird" Anthony commented. My stepmother cleared her throat again.
"Do you need a glass of water?" Alexander asked her.
"No. I need this conversation to stay on topic" she complained.
"Well then, why did you do it?" I asked her again.
My stepmother looked at me and started to tell me her reason "I did it because..."
Author's Note
Hey everyone! So, I did it. I broke the wall. The fourth wall to be exact. I've always wanted to do that. It's very satisfying. I'll probably do more fourth wall breaks in future stories. retro_wonderwoman will probably read them and I hope the rest of you continue to read my stories. So, I'm still figuring out my next fantasy story idea, but I think I have it...maybe. So, is anyone else wondering about her stepmother's reasons? I am too. I'm sure I'll figure it out as soon as I start writing...I hope. Anyways, please vote and comment. Till next note
-Panda12Panda12
P.S. I forgot what I was going to type. I know it involved pandas. Oh well