Born to a duke and duchess, she was the youngest child with an older brother and a twin. Since she was the only girl, she grew up like a princess. Adored by her brother's and father, she was happy. But her mother was bipolar and often disappeared to stay in mental institutions as she was type one. When she was off her meds and at home, she'd often go from one moment in having an extreme high where she could touch the stars while when her mother hit her low; she'd be gravelling at the ground. When she hit her lows, her older brother, Michael, hid Amber and her brother into a closet to keep them away from her. Her dad often found them there.
When she was at her high, Amber adored her mother and was raised on every mythology in the book and was surrounded by paintings and murals decorating the walls and ceilings. She'd be the best mother Amber could imagine.
When her mother was in the institutions, the children was babysat by a girl ten years their senior. Her father eventually fell in love with the girl and divorced the mother which ripped the family apart as she began to use her children to harm their dad, telling them how their dad was a terrible parent and that he didn't love them.
Eventually, the father began to cut contact between the children and their mother as she was becoming more and more unstable. The mother didn't want to be on the meds as she claimed it interfered with her creativity and talents as an artist.
When Amber was twelve, Michael decided he had enough and joined the army to get away from the constant arguing and secrets the parents used them for. He had gotten the idea from their step-mum and had been his dream since he was a boy despite his mother saying she'd never speak to him again if he left.
Amber began to go to the academy and for three years, she was normal. Normal and popular. She went to parties, had friends, but when she was fifteen she was sent back home due to her brother dying in combat. When this happened, everything began to fall apart. Her brother killed himself in his grief and her father threw himself into his job to forget. Feeling alone, she withdrew from her social life and stayed in the back of the class of the academy.
On her sixteenth birthday, her father dropped her off at her mother's as she was allowed two days per year to see Amber. The father had to leave due to being at his wife's ultrasound as it was expected she was pregnant. In his hurry, he didn't check to see if her mother was on her meds.
Upon entering the house, her mother seemed to be fine and asked Amber all the right questions. How she was, how was school. Her mother had become obsessed with stainless glass as her area of art at the moment and the room was decorated with half done windows. Eventually, after a drink of soda, Amber began to feel woozy and excused herself to the bathroom where she began to realize that her mother had drugged the drink. Trying to call her father, he didn't pick up as he was busy with the stepmom.
Leaving the room, she tried to make excuses to leave but found herself falling through one of the windows, the glass cutting into her arms. When she hit the ground, her mother lay down beside her and began to tell her about the story of Andromeda and Perseus. She believed that to be a family again, she had to kill Amber as it would return them to Michael and her twin. She planned to kill herself afterwards.
She was found by her father who had (finally) received the messages and was taken to the hospital and her mother arrested.
This was kept a secret and no one out of her direct family knew of the incident.
