Adelaide Bellamy is a vain, selfish and frivolous girl, spoiled to the extreme by her shallow mother and living away from the rest of her family in a bubble of arrogance and presumption, she has been educated to seduce and attract a rich suitor but soon she will be seduced by the handsome and charming Italian music teacher Stefano Canio. Blinded by Stefano's false love, Adelaide will be capable of committing infamies against those around her and against herself. Does love justify everything? Was it really love that she felt? All these questions Adelaide will ask herself once she meets the eccentric, shady and magnetic Dr. Zola.
Chapter 1 Vain little girl
Adelaide Bellamy had stolen two beautiful, round oranges. She ran to her room excitedly but forgot to lock the door. She stood in front of the mirror and pulled up a chair. Then she managed to tuck between the fabric of her dress and her infant chest the oranges to simulate two generous breasts. She was eight years old and wanted to grow up soon but her growth seemed too slow. As she looked in the mirror and fantasized about being a desirable woman who rejected rows of handsome, wealthy suitors her younger sister Claire came into her room.
-What are you doing,” said Claire, opening her beautiful blue eyes.
-I'm not doing anything,” said Adelaide, frustrated, pulling the two oranges out of her chest.
-You stole those oranges,” said Claire smiling.
-Yes, to eat them,” said Adelaide.
Claire laughed and Adelaide did the same, then they began to eat the oranges and started to play with the pretty dolls Adelaide had in her room. After a while her mother came into the room and when she saw Claire she was very upset.
-How many times must I tell you that you can't go into your sister's room? Look at the mess you've made! You're always dirty and full of dirt. Get out of here now,” Blanche Marchal shouted at Claire.
Claire ran out of the room and Adelaide looked at the floor. Her beautiful dress was stained with the juice of the oranges and her wrists were scattered on the floor. Adelaide was afraid her mother would scold her or spank her as she did every day with Claire but nothing of the sort happened.
-My precious girl. You need to take a bath now, you'll take off that dress and we'll throw it away.We'll go shopping today. You are too beautiful to be near Claire, you know that, don't you,” said Blanche Marchal.
Adelaide nodded her head.
-It's a class thing, it's in the blood, that girl is a savage like her grandmother and your father's horrible family. As I have already told you many times I had to settle for your father because of life's injustices, but I had such rich and handsome suitors that just remembering them makes my heart pound, you will achieve the glory that I could not, won't you do it for mother?
-Yes, mother, I will do it for you,” said Adelaide not so sure.
-There are steps you must follow...You can't mix with her, make her feel who is the queen here. You must not play with her, you are not a silly girl, you are a beautiful woman, you are not for that kind of childish things. You must prepare yourself from now on to be the most beautiful and to drive rich men crazy,” said Blanche excitedly.
Adelaide listened to her mother for a long time, then they went shopping. Her dresses were beautiful and this filled her vanity. Claire dressed in very simple clothes and lived by hiding in the garden to avoid running into her and her mother. Adelaide noticed that the crueler she was to her sister and also to her brother Thomas who was a stutterer, the better her mother treated her. Blanche rewarded her and gave her gifts every time she ridiculed her siblings and spoke ill of them. She even came to believe that she hated them herself. She thought her father was inadequate and became ashamed to walk with him. Her father was a very busy man but whenever he could he would invite her and Claire out for a walk but Adelaide would make excuses not to go out with them. Her mother kept repeating that her father was not sophisticated like Attorney Bonnet.
Blanche talked so much about the lawyer Bonnet that Adelaide was bored by the subject but she dared not say anything to him so as not to lose her mother's favors. One day she saw them in her father's study on the desk. The lawyer was on top of her mother and she had her dress up. Her breasts were outside her dress and he was roughly caressing them while his mother tried to kiss him. The scene shocked Adelaide. She went to her room feeling confused, was her mother doing something wrong?
After a few hours her mother came into her room.
-My dear child I know you saw something but I want to tell you that is love. I have never loved your father and I am a woman in need of love, lawyer Bonnet and I love each other. When you love you do anything my child, nothing else matters. You must satisfy that need in any way you can... One day you will understand,” said Blanche, fixing her hair.
-But...if you love each other, why don't you leave together,” asked Adelaide confused.
-Things don't work like that...your father is the one who pays for our things...your nice dress and everything in your room, my jewels and all the expenses of this house...we can't lose those things, you wouldn't like to lose them, would you? said Blanche.
Adelaide shook her head.
-That's why the lawyer and I will continue to enjoy our love in this way...until...we have a chance and you my child will say nothing and continue to receive beautiful gifts,” said Blanche giving her a kiss on the cheek and then leaving the room.
Despite her mother's explanation she still felt uncomfortable. She didn't say anything and time went on, soon her childish body was rounded and she looked like a woman. Her mother was happy to see her looking so beautiful with her blonde curls, breasts and prominent hips. For Adelaide it was now natural to find her mother making love to the lawyer in any corner of the house. Teasing Claire and Thomas also came naturally to her. She devoted her whole life to looking prettier just as her mother did and no longer had remoŕdments of conscience.She had learned that some people were born to be on top and others to be humiliated. It was destiny. She had been born to be on top next to her mother while her father and siblings had only been born to be trampled by them. Adelaide had become the exact copy of her mother.