"Like stars from different galaxies, we aligned for a glimpse second. And sadly it was the right person, but the wrong time. So while you aren't mine to keep, please let me watch your happiness from afar." - e.g.

PROLOGUE

January 20, 2001

Without the rumbling of city-goers, the blaring of city traffic, and the constant noise that filled the city no one would have ever heard the screaming match between the married couple happening in the Upper West Side penthouse.

But for a girl so small as two that was all that filled her little ears as she laid in her bed clutching onto her bear, . Sophia Claire Brightmore laid there as the screaming of her parents progressed more and more intense.

Living Room

"You're being irrational! Nothing happened, it was just simple flirting. How was I supposed to know that he would get grabby! I can handle my own and would have stopped him before you stepped in." bellowed C.C. Babcock-Brightmore.

Niles stared daggers at her, "So I'm being irrational for stepping up and protecting my wife? Just because he was a potential investor doesn't mean that he should be able to even touch you like that!" he yelled back.

C.C. rolled her eyes. This was just one of the many fights they had for the two years that they had been married. The first few months of their marriage were bliss. They had spent countless days in bed just talking and dreaming about the life they would have when their little one came into the world, their future, and their plans to grow old with each other. But as what people would call "the honeymoon phase" died out, the fights began.

Between C.C.'s busy work schedule and the constant intrusion from the Fine family, their marriage was slowly decaying. But just months later when Sophia was born they packed up and moved back home. Back to the city where they first fell in love. Fights were on and off but lately, anything tipped one another off. Tonight was just like any of their fights, Niles was angry with an investor, but C.C. saw no problem because she needed the investment to pull off another play.

As C.C. sat there aimlessly thinking of their marriage, she felt the fight in her give up. She was tired of it all. Tired of the constant nitpicking, the small fights, and the distance that became their marriage.

"I can't do this anymore." She whispered quietly as she stared at the ground.

Niles stared at her, "What do you mean? You just want to brush off this fight?" he spat out irately.

His blue eyes bored into her as he stood watching intently as she finally looked up to him. He could see the beginning of tears forming in the ocean blue eyes. The eyes he used to stare endlessly in and fall deeper in love with the woman he once called her enemy.

C.C. stood, "I think that everyone was right. Our marriage was doomed from the beginning but we were too naive to see that we don't fit like a married couple. We don't fit like we are supposed to be together forever. We only fit for a fling."

She exhaled and her hands gripped onto the pillow that she was holding before breathing out, "I want a divorce."

She averted her eyes away to miss the hurt look that had fallen onto Niles' face. She couldn't see the damage that she had created by uttering those four words.

Niles fell into the armchair that was seated next to him and rested his elbows on his knees, his hands going straight to his hair, feeling the need to grasp onto something, anything. Anything to stop him from falling deeper into the black hole that was puncturing through his heart. As he sat there, all that he heard was the clicking of her heels as she walked away. Not just from him, but from their marriage.

Unable to retreat to the room they shared, C.C. made her way to the guest room before shutting the door quietly and locking it before she quietly slid down to her bottom before the sobs wracked her body. Unable to even comprehend how from here on her life was changing, unknown if it was going to be better or just hurt her even more.

While the two adults in the penthouse quietly contemplated what had just happened and what their next move was, Sophia Brightmore sat up in her bed, a feeling of uneasiness settling over her. Even though she was only two, she knew something bad had just happened between her parents. Something that was going to change her little world.