Chapter 2: Burning Love

The alarm clock blindingly read 8 o'clock as lyrics to a popular song streamed out of the annoying plastic box. Annabelle reached out from under her covers to turn off the music and stretched her body. After a few minutes of wandering around her bedroom, she went to take a shower, getting ready for another day's work. When she was dressed in her dull uniform, she assessed herself in the full-length mirror. The black pencil skirt and vest did nothing to suit her figure and neither did the white-collared shirt and black heels. But it was what she had to wear every day and she couldn't complain. A waitress by any standard could never complain about clothing options, even for a once wealthy heiress.

As she looked at herself in the mirror, she observed how much she had changed over the past couple of years. She had been a beautiful girl in her teenage years, but as time went by, the lines that etched her forehead deepened and there were unattractive creases that started to form around her cheeks whenever she smiled.

"Maybe I should stop smiling", she thought. She made some more odd expressions in the mirror before leaving her bedroom.

The Elliot residence was much smaller now compared to their old home. Standing from the kitchen, one would be no more than ten feet to the living and dining rooms which were connected. Sure it was a little cramp to what she and her family were used to, but if staying in this house meant that her family was not going to be cold, then so be it. And so this was Annabelle's personal philosophy. Family came before everything else. Even if that meant that Annabelle's life had to be put on hold.

Annabelle walked out to the living, surprised to see her mother sitting on the couch. "Mom, what are you doing up so early?" she asked. Her mother didn't answer. She was mindlessly staring at the TV. "Like a zombie", thought Annabelle. Her mother was like a zombie, always looking as if she had no life within her small frail body. When her mother ignored answering her question the second time around, Annabelle shrugged and walked over to the kitchen.

After she had fixed herself something to eat, Annabelle left for work. And that was how her morning usually started out. It was an endless cycle of waking up to an alarm clock, cold shoulders from her mother, and silently eating breakfast by herself. It was a cycle that Annabelle couldn't break out of. She didn't use to always to live like this, but ever since her father died, she was left with the burden of all of the responsibilities.

As Annabelle drove to work, she thought about the night before and her dinner with Lana Musgrove and her fiancé. Images of Frederick Wentworth flickered through her mind. She thought about him occasionally over the course of the past few years but seeing him again last night sent her brain into overload.

"So, Lana, how did you and Frederick meet?" Annabelle asked. Their food have just been brought out and, according to proper standards, small talk was officially over.

"You want to know about my car accident, don't you?" Lana replied. She was used to curious people like that. Why wouldn't you be curious about a paralyzed heiress? She had told the story about that fateful day so many times out loud and in her head that she knew the speech by heart. Still, the story always made her so happy when she got to the end.

"Well, two years ago, I was home from college for winter break and I wanted to visit Papa at Uppercross. I had a friend drop me off at his building and surprised him. Papa was very happy to see me. He was so excited to show me around that eventually he introduced me to Frederick.

Frederick was an editor for the company and he was one of Papa's favorite employees. He was extremely handsome and very kind to me. I've always felt that it was 'love at first sight' for me. I wasn't sure about Frederick's feelings on the matter but I knew that he was the one. No matter how strange that may sound out loud.

In any case, Papa wanted to introduce me to a couple more people but he had to go to a meeting so he had to leave. He asked Frederick to take me home which made me so happy!"

At this point, Frederick excused himself, saying that he needed to check something in his car and left. Annabelle watched him walk away with a panged ache in her chest but she nonetheless turned her attentions back to Lana, asking her what had happened next.

"Well, you know how the weather gets in New York. It is always too dangerous to drive anywhere and it was no different that day. Frederick and I really hit it off in his car, Oh! You should have seen us, Annabelle; we were laughing and talking as if we had known each other forever!

But one moment we were driving on the highway as if nothing would happen and then the next moment, Frederick and I were in a head-on collision with another car that had lost control because of the ice on the road. Next thing I knew, I woke up in the hospital with Frederick beside me. I tried to get up but couldn't. That was when Frederick told me that the crash paralyzed my legs. I would never be able to walk again."

When Lana finished, she and Annabelle sat there quietly, listening to the quiet chatter of the people around them. After a moment or two, Lana smiled brightly and said that she had already cried her fair share of tears and that she was already moving on with her life.

"After that, Frederick visited me every day that I was at the hospital and every day that I was at home. We fell in love and you could probably guessed what happened next," she finished saying.

Annabelle fell out of her trance and realized that she had already arrived at Plate, the restaurant where she worked. Although it didn't compare to the grandeur of the restaurant where she ate the night before, Annabelle still felt that Plate was definitely out of her budget if she ever decided to dine there.

The morning and lunch shifts were always the best times of day to work as a waitress. It was busy enough to keep her from becoming bored but it was also quiet enough to keep Annabelle from stressing out and allowed her time to process her life or at least her bills.

Annabelle walked into the kitchen of Plate with a big smile plastered on her face. The people who worked there loved Annabelle. To them, she had a kind soul who always wanted to help and would do everything in her power to please others. The cooks, especially, were fiercely protective of her. They had known her at Plate the longest and they treated her like family.

"Morning, you guys," Annabelle said. They all gave her an equally warm greeting. Annabelle then went to the counter and grabbed a small apron, strapping it around her waist. She walked out of the double metals doors and greeted her first customers of the day, asking if there was anything that she was able to get for them while they looked at the menus.

Seven years ago, Annabelle Elliot was the second daughter of a baronet. Now baronetcy may not mean anything in America but to the Elliot family and New York City's high society, it meant everything. Or at least it meant something to Annabelle's father, Sir Scott Elliot. His only motto had always been "Class and looks are everything!" But the family would understand in the later years of their lives that social hierarchy and appearance was in fact not everything.

Sir Scott Elliot was a handsome man in his younger days. And as he grew older, he was very much impressed at how much his looks stayed handsome. He was very proud of his title of a baronet. To him, he (and in relation to him, his family) must be respected wherever he goes. And with the title, there also was money. His family was wealthy, of course. He lived on a healthy trust fund of which he invested all in the stock market in the high hopes that he would become richer and able to spend lavishly for the rest of his life.

At the ripe age of thirty, when socializing with playmates was getting old, Sir Scott married Elisa Chambers. She was the most beautiful angel that he had ever seen. He pictured them having beautiful children of whom he could be proud to be seen around with. She didn't have a title like he did but she was not poor either and he respected her for that.

But her marriage with Sir Scott had put a horrible strain on the Chamber family. Elisa's parents did not trust Scott's intentions of marriage, and persuaded her to leave him. But she was madly in love with her fiancé and was determined to be with him. Becoming Lady Elisa Elliot gave her more wealth, but in turn, she was cut off of her own trust fund, and relations with her family became nonexistent.

Now the Sir and Lady Elliot, in the twenty five years of their marriage, produced three very different daughters: Beth, Annabelle, and Meredith. All three were very beautiful, though Sir Scott favored Beth above all. The eldest was certainly a force to be reckoned with. She was her father's daughter, and it was amazing how the two of them did not spend the family into poverty. Beth was certainly a vain and selfish girl like her father, and at the age of thirty, she had yet to meet anybody that had met her standards. It really was a shame. If she had married earlier, maybe more than one person would have suffered less.

The youngest, Meredith, was on the other end of the spectrum from her eldest sister. She was tiresome in her complaints and lived in her own world full of delusions. She was also very dependent on her family for support and advice, especially Annabelle's. Although Elisa tried to be a great mother (or even an okay mother), Meredith had always felt that Annabelle should hold the burden of a mother that heard her daughter's pains with compassion. And that burden became the basis of Meredith's frequent visits to Plate to see her elder sister.

"Hey, Annabelle!" Meredith popped out of nowhere, scaring her sister half to death. "I need you to do something for me."

"Goodness gracious, Mere. You could've given me a heart attack," Annabelle breathed, clutching her chest. She seated her sister at an empty table and asked if she should go get them some drinks. "Is George here? Should I get him something too?"

George Musgrove was a kind-hearted man at the age of twenty-eight. He had made a good name and fortune for himself as the heir to a respectable real estate agency and lives in a nice well-sized home on the outskirts of the populous city.

He and Meredith were married just five-years earlier and already they were the fortunate parents of twin boys. And while children were the living joys of George's life, the constant screaming and whining of kids did not suit Meredith's own temperament of screaming and whining and found solace in frequently asking her sister for help.

Annabelle loved her nephews to bits. In them, she saw the possibility of what her own child could have been. But what had happened was all in the past now. There was no point worrying about these kinds of issues.

"George, how have you been?" Annabelle smiled as she placed down the drinks and gave her brother-in-law a big hug.

"Good, very good. You know, the kids—"

"George, this is not the time for chit chat. This is a real emergency!" Meredith interjected.

"Honey, to you, everything is an emergency," George gave a hearty laugh but even he could sense his wife's displeasure. He fell quiet and sat down beside Meredith, grabbing and interlocking his hand with hers.

Annabelle watched this with a small smile on her face. She was glad that her sister was so loved by her husband, even if she didn't like seeing George so whipped. She gave her head a shake and sat down opposite the couple and asked how she could help them.

"Well," Meredith started, "as you know, the Musgrove's, George's family, have a house in the Hamptons and they've invited us to spend the summer with them. You also know how uncomfortable I can get when I'm around my in-laws."

"Yeah, only because you make yourself scared of them," George remarked.

Meredith shot him a cold look that read "Not now, dear. We will talk about this in the car." And she continued with, "So my favor is to ask you to come with us to visit the Musgrove's, they would want to see you again and I definitely want you to be there by my side."

"But, Mere, surely you see the problems in this favor. I can't just leave my job for the whole summer. Who will pay the bills? Who will take care of Mom?" Annabelle asked with a tone of concern in her voice.

"Annabelle, you've worked here for seven year and not once (and I repeat, not once) have you requested a day off. I'm sure the manager will have no problem in letting you take two or three months off." This was true. Annabelle's coworkers have been urging her to take some time off to enjoy herself. They pitied the girl who worked so hard for an undeserving family and wanted to see her genuinely happy. "The bills will get paid, I promise. Your vacation would probably be paid anyway; you don't have to worry about a thing."

"You make it sound so easy, Mere. But who will take care of Mom then?" Annabelle was still unsure about the whole idea of her spending a few months away from her unhealthy and zombie-like mother. She was always Annabelle's biggest worry.

"Oh, I'm sure Beth could take care of her. You know that Mom would be happier with Beth anyway and George here will make sure that things will be well settled and that Mom does not die in the meantime. Now would you please just give in and come with me to the Hamptons? Please! Please! Please!" Meredith pleaded and then she added, "And you never know, maybe you'll be able to meet somebody to your liking."

Annabelle was crazy. She was also a big pushover. There was no saying 'no' to her little sister, and before neither one of them knew it, Annabelle agreed to take the long-deserved vacation. It wasn't until she got home from work that she remembered that Lana Musgrove, George's little sister, would probably be there. And with her, her new fiancé.

Author's Note: Hey, everyone! I'm so happy to update again. I got the feeling that I should continue with this story (although I only got this impression from two reviewers...) so I'm continuing it! I hope you like this chapter. It's hard for me to write like this because I haven't done it in SUCH a long time! Anyways, I guess this is where I ask you guys to review since I love them so much. It gives me such great motivations to keep writing. :)