Daughter of Chaos

By Ava Denzworth

This story is about the struggles and trials of a young girl who sought to find a sense of stability and escape from the world of chaos in which she lived. After looking back over her life, she realized how much of an impact the violent nature of her family history had molded her into something better.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 9, 2023
• ISBN: 9781669877103

Ava Denzworth

When she was a young girl, Ava Denzworth started out writing short stories and poetry to pass the time away during her dad’s fishing trips. She was born and raised in the South yet lived most of her adult life in the Midwest. She graduated from a prestigious University and has worked in the education field with special needs children. She has always been drawn to the theatre and drama, re-creating musicals and re-writing the endings to stories. Her creativity motivated her to build a career as a writer.

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Copyright © 2023 by Ava Denzworth.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 05/09/2023

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

548019

This book is dedicated to my mother, Marian Sophia Jane Johnson the kindest, loving, strongest and most humble person who always told us Love God with all your heart and always treat others with kindness and don’t worry when other people talk about you, they talked about Jesus Christ, and He still loves them.

For now, we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:12). American Standard Version

CONTENTS

Prologue

Chapter 1     Pax in bello

Chapter 2     Enigma

Chapter 3     Sophia

Chapter 4     Forced Amnesia

Chapter 5     Make-Believe

Chapter 6     The White Horse

Chapter 7     Perish

Chapter 8     Sarah

Chapter 9     Part of the Family

Chapter 10   Tainted

PROLOGUE

Staring deeply into that bathroom mirror as a little girl, using tissue to rub off the soap drawn letters H-A-T-E that I had put there, I wanted so badly to make some sense of what happened to me. There must be some sensible reason why things were that way. In my mind, I picture something cruel happening to my daddy when he was little. There were so many crazy stories about the Royal’s. Perhaps somewhere, from the beginning, something awful was introduced into the family and became a way of life. The land the family owns is supposedly a graveyard of disposed bodies from merciless killings and sacrifices. The women in the family were treated like concubines and servants. The men were of tall statue and reverence. They held power that exceeded the normal, what was then referred to as negro, family of those times. They were a proud tribe, heirs of an estate and acreages of land that were given to them back in the 1800s. The land is in what is now a prestige area of Northeast Royal Lake, Mississippi. Of course, most of the stories are true. The main house is still on the property, stripped of its dignity and rotting away deep inside a wooded area hidden away with the crimes and carnage that once controlled that area.

CHAPTER ONE

Pax in bello

Peace is produced by war, is what the original Royal family believed. The Royals are a proud family. They seek out strength through the accomplishments of their forefathers who maintained dignity and freedom through family division and slavery. Their pride is based on the namesake of the Royals who came to this country long ago. Their arrival on this land came with a price to fight for what they wanted and to stand on it, even when the fighting was amongst themselves. This seems to be an inherit trait of the Royal blood. In order to maintain harmony, conflict and fighting had to be used to obtain it. The Patriarch of the Royal family was Finlay Royal who was born about 1720 in Scotland. His wife was named Katherine, but her surname is unknown. He loved music and played the violin. When he came to the Americas, he had in his possession a Stradivari Violin which has been passed down through the family until this very day.

Finlay and Katherine had six children: Duncan, Mary, Logan, Noah, Finlay, and Katherine. It was Finlay’s son Duncan who carries our lineage. During the Revolutionary War, Finlay Royal served in the 3rd Regiment under Captain Richard Davids. His son Duncan was born in 1751 in North Carolina. He married Mary Graham and had only two children, sons Duncan born in 1770 and Logan C. born in 1772. Finlay Royal was captured at the fall of Peter Town and later died in prison about 1781 as a prisoner of war. His son Duncan died in Abbeville County, North Carolina and left his two sons, Duncan, and Logan C. a large amount of property.

Logan C. Royal left Abbeville and moved to Lowndesville, North Carolina. He was married to Katherine (Katie) Edwards in 1792. Logan C. and Katie had six children. They had three sons, Gabriel was