After being sent to live in the countryside following her mother’s death, Cheryl was taken under the wing of a man who later became her mentor. His guidance enabled her to become an anonymous medical genius known only as "Madame C" to the public. She was soon sent to Southville on a mission to infiltrate the Holberts, and—as fate would have it—she returned home to find that she had been arranged to marry Norman, the Holbert’s scion, when she was still young.