"Damn it, Ella!" I heard my daughter scream from the next room with tears in her distraught voice. My face fell forward into my hands. When I heard Ella scream in pain I opened a hidden bottle of whiskey to relieve the constant ache that had been ground relentlessly into my head since my second husband died. I had finally reached the point in my life where I had begun to hate teenaged girls.

"Ana, I did nothing wrong!" Ella insisted in her own pleading voice. "It was his idea... he's the one who..." Honestly, they were old enough to pretend to get along. Just for my sake?

"Oh, just because you look so small and helpless! Just because you've got those pretty green eyes and those sweet pink lips, you think you can just steal any man who walks past you!" My daughter sobbed. "I can handle a scum of a man, Ella, but we are sisters!"

"I know!" shouted my stepdaughter. I knew she meant to be apologetic, but I imagined the tone through my daughter's ears. Poor child. Both of them. I took a large drink from my secret bottle, fit the stopper back on, and replaced it in its hiding place. Then I bravely stormed into the next room.

Ella's blonde hair was halfway ripped out of its style. There was a scratch under her left eye. Ana was crying.

"All right, girls!" I said to announce my presence. Both of my girls looked up at me, but I did not have a followup sentence. What could I say? How could I reprimand Ella when I knew she only acted out because of all this emotional distress. It was a year since her father died, but not enough time for her to overcome the loss. Not to mention, scolding had not worked in the past. Not when I caught her with the butler, nor when we found the stolen necklaces in her bedroom. Of course in those instances the jewelry was returned and the butler was fired. There was no sobbing Ana to tend to as well.

"Ella, you to your wing, Ana you to yours!" I attempted to sound demanding as I pointed off in different directions. Ella retaliated.

"But I was alone in the village, I was crying... I wasn't thinking straight! I'm sorry!" A tear fell down her fair-skinned cheek. I realized inappropriately that it was understandable that Ana's beaux would prefer Ella in appearance. I shook the thought away. Of course Ana was beautiful... in her own way. "I really didn't mean it, but at least you know now." She turned to Ana and knelt down, pleading. "At least you know now how wrong he is for you! Oh, Ana please forgive me..." But my Ana stormed away. I heard several doors slam, each one quieter than the last as she grew further away, and then I judged her to be in her room. I looked back to Ella, who was sobbing into her hands on the dark red carpet. I walked over to her gently, trying to ignore the new bracelet on her wrist that I did not recall providing the money for, and I knelt down beside her and wrapped my arms around her heaving shoulders.

"Oh, my beautiful Ella." I said quietly, once her sobbing had calmed down to a steady stream of tears. "It's got to stop." I told her. "I know it's hard, but this has got to stop. If you hurt your sister like that again- for any reason- there will be consequences, there's no way around it. Do you hear me Ella?" She gasped twice and swallowed.

"Yes." She said, and she nodded emphatically. "Yes, I'll... try." She continued to nod, and once I was sure she was all right I left her, and went to tend to her broken hearted sister.