Cinderella's Arc

Chapter 2 of 4

Cinderella walked fast toward the square, keeping to the side streets where the cobblestones were broken and fewer people passed. Her apron was still damp from the spilled bucket. She didn't take it off. If she stopped to think about what she looked like, she might turn back. But halfway there, she saw the boutique. It stood at a crossroads she'd scrubbed a hundred times, except now vines twisted up the curved walls and lanterns glowed in the windows. A crystal dome sat on a table outside, and inside it, her slipper caught the light and threw rainbows across the street. A woman stood beside the dome, arms crossed, watching the road. She wasn't testing the slipper on anyone. She was waiting. Cinderella stopped. The woman's eyes found her immediately, as if she'd been expecting exactly this moment. She lifted something silver from her pocket and held it up. A locket. Heart-shaped, with a sapphire at the center and engravings Cinderella recognized even from ten paces away. Her mother's. The one she'd sold two years ago to pay for her stepmother's medicine. The woman smiled. "I know who you are," she said. "The slipper for the locket. Or I take both to the prince and tell him you sold your mother's memory for coin." Cinderella's throat closed. She could walk away, let the thief keep both, disappear into the side streets and stay invisible forever. Or she could step forward and trade the proof of the ball for the proof of her past. She looked at the slipper in its glass prison, then at the locket in the woman's hand. Her mother's face was inside that silver heart. The prince had held her for one night. Her mother had held her for eight years. She reached out and took the locket. The woman's smile widened as she pocketed the dome and walked toward the square. Cinderella stood alone at the crossroads, the locket heavy in her palm. She'd given up the prince's search to reclaim a piece of herself he'd never know existed. The choice had been impossible, and she'd made it anyway. Now she had to live with what it meant.