Just The Start
Cat never liked being placed in a situation where she was able to be controlled, never liked others telling her what to do, who to be. She had her own mind, her own way of doing things and no one could tell her otherwise. This led to many disputes with people over the years, her mother being one of the ever present and persistent people pushing her. She and her mother had very different opinions on what they wanted her life to be. Her mother always wanted her to settle down with a doctor or lawyer, get married and raise the kids with her soulmates. Cat on the other hand and much different plans. It was no secret that she grew up privileged, she went the best schools, lived in a fancy neighborhood, had the latest things. But she was always grateful for it. She saw what having everything could do to a person and she never wanted to become like them. So, she worked hard, harder than she probably should have but she worked and worked until she got to the top. Anything she did, she did it until she was the best. She put blood, sweat, and tears into excelling because if she couldn't control who her soulmate was, she sure as hell could control what she did with the rest of her life. And she wasn't going to sit around and wait for the seconds on that stupid clock to tick down until she did something with her life. She heard the stories of many generations ago, the people who were able to choose their soulmates, the people they loved. And she wanted that.
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When she was sixteen, she covered her wrist. The little black numbers that counted down the years until she would meet the person she was destined to be with were just a nuisance, she would damn well choose who she fell in love with. At that point in her life, she was envious of the unpromised, as they were called. The lucky few that were born without numbers counting down to the last second. As the years went on, she tried her damn hardest to forget about it, about the stupid clock that controlled her fate. She tried to ignore it and it worked, most of the time. When it got too much for her, when she could no longer just survive with being alone, because after a while the loneliness got to her, she dated. Then Adam's father came into the picture and she wanted him to be the one but she refused to look. And when it turned out that he wasn't, she wasn't too surprised. Adam was a blessing and she loved him more than she thought she could love anyone. But she was on the fast track for a once in a lifetime opportunity and at some point, she found that she had inadvertently put her career in front of him. By the time she realized it, it was too late and the damage had already been done. So, like the inevitable countdown, she shoved her feelings into a box and focused on her career. Eventually, she met Carter's father and she was in love. She even married and had a beautiful child with him. And unlike what happened with Adam, she made sure that Carter knew that she loved him. Even when she and Steve weren't together anymore, even when he left them. She vowed to never make the same mistake twice and she'd die before letting go of the most precious thing in her life. Steve wasn't the one, he couldn't have been because he left them for a twenty something-year-old model that he claimed was his soulmate. She knew because one night, shortly after they had divorced she had convinced herself that h really did meet her. Because that couldn't have been it. She couldn't have waited her whole life for that. And after drowning her sorrows in many glasses of Whiskey, she looked at her wrist. For the first time since she was sixteen and she saw the numbers counting down.
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She regretted it immediately because she knew. She could deny and scoff all she wanted but deep down, she knew that it was going to gnaw at her for the next seven years. She cursed herself for weeks after that. And then she did what she knew best, she threw herself into her work. Seven years went by and she almost forgot that it was soon time. She did forget the day and she was grateful. But there was a small part of her that was curious, it was in the pit of her stomach and something she fought really hard to ignore. She was building her empire and taking care of a child, she didn't have time to worry about her love life. She when a knock at her door signaled another applicant, she signaled for her to come in, completely unaware of what was to come.
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