…Chapter One…
Life… what is the meaning? Each person has their own answer and for me…. it is love.
My name is Esme Platt; I'm 22 and am engaged to the most handsome, rich, man in all of the town where I live, so I'm told.
Charles Hawkins has his moments in my eyes where, yes, he is the most sweet and loving I know. But those moments are outnumbered by the ones where all I want to do run… Run far away as fast as I can…
Charles' father owns the oil drilling company outside of town. Charles is set up to run the company when his father passes. Most women would kill for one day with him let alone to be engaged to him.
You see, it's an arranged marriage in my eyes…
My mother and father had a heavy load: raising three children, paying the bills by balancing two jobs each and more. With me being the oldest child, I took the responsibility of taking care of my younger brother, Anthony, and sister, Lilly, they were twins. Every morning I would rise at the first sign of daylight to make my parents each lunch, they never asked me to, I just did. In fact they never asked me to do anything, I did everything for love. They would each give me a kiss going out the door as I handed them their lunches and told them to have good day.
After that I would go into the kitchen and start breakfast. I loved seeing Anthony and Lilly's faces every morning when they would come into the kitchen to find the perfect breakfast at the table: Oatmeal, an orange or apple, and Toast plus, when we were lucky we would even get jam! Yes, not the usual things one thinks of when describing the perfect breakfast, but to our little family, it was.
As the day went on I would play with Anthony and Lilly, making sure they each were happy as can be. Then when school came around I would send them off after breakfast and somehow manage to get myself to school on time, how I did I still don't know. I'd meet them in front of their school everyday when it ended and we would all walk home listening to how each other's day was. I would then make dinner every night as Anthony and Lilly sat by the window watching for the return of our parents. By the time dinner was done, I would here the same, "Esme here comes Mommy! Here comes Daddy!" from the two of them as they jumped up and down opening the door and running outside. Mother and Father would come in exhausted every night, but somehow they still held smiles and hugged each of us as tight as they could.
Every day and night the same routine: Breakfast, school, Anthony and Lilly, make dinner. Sometimes I'd just lay awake at night, dreaming of a place where mother and father would have to work everyday, where we could all be together happy with no worries. I would hear mother and father late at night sometimes talking in the kitchen, trying to figure out ways to bring in more money, trying to find ways to help us children. I wouldn't even sleep some nights; I'd just lay there imagining, or reading. I'd read stories about far away places where people fell in love on every street corner, where money didn't matter, where all that mattered was love…
I dreamed of a day where I would find my prince charming and he would help me help my family because he loved them too. In my dreams I would be grown up so to speak. I would see him in my dreams, he never changed… tall, beautiful auburn eyes I could get lost in, blonde hair, and he loved me. I would tell about him in my dairy, recording every detail of every dream, pictures and all. Every dream would be different, a different adventure with him, but those were just dreams, how foolish I was to believe love like that existed outside my books and dreams…
I'll never forget that night… I'll never forget that night… It was late January; I had just started dinner as Anthony and Lilly were running to the front room. A storm had just come in earlier that evening: blustering winds, pelting rain, and the occasional thunder in the far distance and— I can't even think about it any more… I just… can't… that night my father died… a part of me died as well. I told myself, forget the fairytale dreams, forget dreams of a better place, forget love…
Here I am, twelve years later. I last twelve years are really just a big blur, I remember giving up on doing things for myself and focusing on my mom and siblings. I remember my mom struggling more and more, I remember turning down a scholarship to stay in my home town to help around, I don't remember the last time I made a decision for myself.