"Maxwell, you became a talented artist – why…?" Ekaterina's voice was barely a whisper now, each word a monumental effort against the pain and the encroaching darkness.
"Why? Forcing me to paint different types of paintings, Ekaterina! I hate you!" Maxwell spat, his face contorted with a childish petulance that belied the skill of his artistry. The accusation was a final, devastating blow – a rejection from the brother she'd tirelessly encouraged and supported.
Ekaterina couldn't believe it. These were the five brothers she had worked so hard to nurture and help reach their dreams, yet this was how they repaid her – with lies, cruelty, and blatant betrayal.
"Jennifer! You!" she cried out, summoning the last vestiges of her strength to launch herself at Jennifer.
But before she could even take a step, she was kicked violently in the stomach, sending her crashing back to the floor. A whip cracked across her back, searing pain lancing through her flesh.
"Father! You became a charity and investor genius – it was because of me, but why…?" Ekaterina gasped, struggling to breathe as she looked up at Taylor, pleading for some semblance of reason, some flicker of the paternal affection she remembered.
"Shut up!" Taylor roared, his face a mask of cold fury.
"You aren't even my biological daughter! If not for your mother who took you in, do you think I care if you die?" The words were like shards of ice piercing her heart, shattering any remaining illusion of belonging.
"Jennifer, we will be out waiting to dress you up," Taylor continued, his voice devoid of any warmth or regret. He turned away from Ekaterina, dismissing her as if she were a broken toy.
"Yes, Dad!" Jennifer chirped, her voice dripping with triumphant glee. She then sauntered over to Ekaterina, who lay broken and defeated on the marble floor. A cruel smile stretched across Jennifer's face as everyone else filed out of the room, leaving them alone.
"Why?" Jennifer began, her voice low and laced with a perverse delight.
"Honestly, Ekaterina, stealing your things is fun, but why must you always have good fortune? I hope you die a horrible death." She clapped her hands together with a sickeningly cheerful sound.
"Boys have fun with her."
Jennifer's words hung in the air, a final, venomous pronouncement sealing Ekaterina's fate. A group of rough-looking men, clearly hired muscle, emerged from the shadows, their eyes devoid of empathy. They descended upon Ekaterina with brutal efficiency, tearing at her exquisite wedding gown, stripping away the layers of lace and silk until she was left exposed and vulnerable against the cold marble floor.
Ekaterina, fueled by a primal instinct for survival, scrambled to her feet. The pills had weakened her considerably, blurring her vision and slowing her movements, but she wasn't ready to surrender. She stumbled blindly through the mansion, desperate to escape the nightmare unfolding around her.
She burst out into the snowy landscape, the biting wind whipping at her bare skin.
She saw Jennifer standing on the balcony of the mansion, a silhouette framed against the swirling snow. The younger woman's posture was relaxed, almost languid, but her eyes glittered with a cold, triumphant malice. A smirk played on her lips as she watched Ekaterina's desperate flight.
Driven by a surge of adrenaline and despair, Ekaterina ran blindly across the snow-covered grounds, her bare feet sinking into the icy drifts. She could hear the shouts of her brothers and the heavy footfalls of their pursuers gaining on her. There was nowhere to go, no one to turn to.
Then, she saw it - a sheer cliff face plunging down into a dark abyss. A desperate idea sparked in her mind – an act of final defiance, a rejection of the life that had become a living torment.
Without hesitation, Ekaterina ran towards the edge, the wind screaming in her ears, the snow stinging her face. She didn't look back. She didn't pause to consider the consequences. All that mattered was escaping the suffocating grip of her family, escaping the relentless cruelty of Jennifer.
With a final, defiant surge of strength, she launched herself into the void.
The world dissolved into a dizzying rush of snow and darkness. For a fleeting moment, she felt a strange sense of liberation – a release from the pain, the betrayal, the endless struggle.
Then, there was only impact.
Her body crashed against the rocks below with a sickening thud, shattering into a thousand pieces. The snow quickly began to cover her form, erasing all trace of her existence.
A wave of icy coldness enveloped Ekaterina, a sensation far more profound than the biting wind she'd felt moments before. It wasn't just the chill of the winter air; it was a bone-deep, existential coldness that seeped into her very being. The pain from the impact had subsided, replaced by an unsettling numbness. She wasn't *feeling* anything, not in the way she remembered.
A strange lightness permeated her form. It was as if the weight of her memories, her emotions, her very identity were slowly dissolving, carried away by an unseen current. She drifted, suspended in a void of swirling white, no longer bound by gravity or physical limitations.
Then, a voice echoed through the emptiness - a familiar voice, yet distorted and alien.
"Interesting...very interesting, but her energy is that of immortal hehe it so interesting so interesting so interesting," the mysterious voice said. Ekaterina slowly lifted up from the snow. The mysterious voice sighed the entire sky started to create chaos as if all life, and death were moaning with sadness.
The swirling white coalesced, resolving into a vast, ethereal chamber constructed of shimmering, iridescent crystal. It pulsed with a soft, internal light, casting dancing shadows that seemed to writhe with a life of their own. Floating within the chamber were countless fragments of memories – shimmering orbs of light, each representing a moment from her past lives, both the one she'd just abandoned and others stretching back into an unknowable antiquity.
The voice resonated again, closer this time. Ekaterina turned to find the source - a being unlike anything she'd ever encountered, even in her divinations. It was vaguely humanoid in form, but its body seemed to be composed entirely of shifting constellations. Stars spiraled within its frame, and nebulous clouds swirled around it like a celestial cloak. Its eyes were twin galaxies, vast and ancient and filled with an unfathomable wisdom.
"Little celestial goddess princess I shall seal your memories of your other past lives aside from this one," the mysterious voice said. Ekaterina body slowly turned into a golden light and within few seconds it disappeared.
"How interesting my dear granddaughter may you be protected in your next life," the mysterious voice said within seconds the person disappeared as if it was nothing.