Born Ciara O'Conor, the youngest child and only daughter of Amy Dunn and Don O'Conor, Ciara spent five wonderful years living with her parents and older brother, Timothay, in North Carolina. Then her mother developed an unusual disease, and the family moved to New York state to be near a hospital specializing in research. During this move, Timothay and Ciara were sent to stay with Amy's parents in Colorado. Amy grew better for awhile, but shortly after Ciara turned ten she grew much worse again. It was neccicary for Ciara and fifteen-year-old Timothay to go stay with Conor's parents in a villiage in Ireland.
Over the next few years, they would return for four months or so to stay with their grandparents. Back in the States each fall and winter, Ciara spent as much time as possible with her mother and at her studies. She and her mother were very close and Ciara's favorite thing to do was to sit with her parents in the evening and listen to stories.
Each summer she returned to Ireland, and when she turned sixteen she began experimentally dating, first with the eighteen-year-old Liam, then towards the end of the summer with seventeen-year-old Michael. When she left that fall for home, she felt very close to Michael and liked him a lot. However, the following summer, unbeknownst to her, he dated other women. Devestated when she found out, not only because of his deceit but because shortly after she received the news that her mother had taken a turn for the worse and was not expected to live.
She and Timothay returned to the US, and Thay comforted her when Amy died a few months later. Then Ciara went to live with her mother�s family in Colorado, while Timothay returned to Ireland. She didn�t stay with the Dunns long, finishing highschool and then starting at a school there. However, trouble came on her trip to California: she was kidnapped and taken to Scotland by a terrorist group determined to use her and Timothay as bait for her father.
Inside of a miserable hovel for nearly a week, Ciara spoke often with a man known to her only as the Mad Hatter. After the March Hare attacked and nearly violated her, she spent more time than ever with the Hatter, who would protect her. However, the fragile semi-trust that had been building between them vanished when, towards the end of the week, he nearly shot her brother to death. The next day he took Timothay and tortured him, cutting off the ends of his fingers; another young man named Caleb was tortured and eventually Ciara herself suffered abuse from both the March Hare and the Mad Hatter before Timothay escaped, bringing their father back.
It took a long time for Ciara to recover from the ordeal, and she remained with her father and brother in New York for a time. When her father began suffering from bad heart problems, they moved to Chicago. Don told his children that to avoid being tracked by the Wonderland Gang, they should change their name. He reversed his first and last name and became Conor Donnovan, while they took Donnovan as their last name.
He gradually recovered from his heart problems, and Ciara decided to go to college. She once more headed for California, Timothay with her this time, and soon was working hard to get through her classes and forget all about Wonderland. Both she and Thay kept in close touch with their father, travelling to Chicago as much as possible for holidays like Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving. She became a regular at the Cup & Saucer coffee shop, got a job as a DJ on a local radio station, and worked hard to put her tragic past behind her. |
