The story starts with her father, a shadow hunter, afflicted with the curse. Bitten by a werebeast on a hunt, the man had the resolve to stay himself all day...or, at least, all day until his daughter got home. His daughter, by now 10, took beating after beating from the man, not knowing why her daddy was mad at her, not knowing about the curse. Until now, he had managed to keep her as far away from the hunt as possible, or so he liked to believe.
    Claire took beating after beating from her father, year after year. She just thought daddy had some pent up anger, and that she was the one helping him cope. And she was fine with that. Or at least she acted like she was, while beneath the surface, depression brewed within her.
    It wasn't until she turned 13 that the girl fought back. Her dad didn't even see it coming, didn't even notice the blade. The part of himself that was still human, that was still resisting the curse, thought that his daughter would never try to harm him. He never saw it coming, only felt her weight on his back, and then blackness.
    She had stayed home that day. That day, something snapped in her. She waited for when she knew he would come home, a knife from the kitchen in her hand. She hid behind the front door, and jumped on her father's back as he came through the door and walked right by her. He never saw it coming.
    She stayed in that house all night with her father's corpse, crying as the realization of what she had done came to her. They were going to come for her. They were going to find out. They were going to lock her away. Her life was over.
    The next day, a hunter came by, but not a hunter like any she had ever seen, as he had an odd mask on. "Father," was the only word he said to her before she broke down into tears, shouting at him about how she didn't mean to, about how sorry she was. The hunter discovered the corpse, but instead of being locked up, she was seen as a hero, a child who managed to take down a were-beast.
    'But I didn't know.' 'I don't deserve this.' These were the words that went through the child's head for the next three years as she trained to become a shadowhunter, learning under an alchemist from her own request. This event only served to expand her depression as she never told anyone she didn't know, she kept the shame of killing the man who she thought was still her father to herself.