From Neglect to True Love

d seven years ago, the Hayes family, my adoptive parents, had just found me, their old friends' orphaned daughter. They took me in,

distant boy who grew into a man who seemed to have no interest in worldly things. He w

a place he never let me enter. The door was ajar. Inside, the room was bare, except for the walls. They

broken. "I'd do anything to be with you. E

my seven years of de

a decision. I would m

ry over the phone. "The man is a monster in the business world. And what abou

my heart a hollow space i

tly, a ghost at my own life' s negotiation. My adoptive father, David Hayes, smil

s," David said, his tone smooth as honey. "Olivia, our eldest, is current

Olivia, even from th

he photos David was trying to show him on

oice low and firm, cutting through David' s sales pitc

omfortably on the sofa. For the first time in a long time, I

nt of me. It detailed what I would get, and what I would no

one s

Michael. "If I marry

aid, his expres

Hayes family business. You will not help them, and

sformed him, making him look less like a ruthless

," he

our engagem

arah, I don't understand. You and Daniel... you' ve

er seen my struggle, my one-sided love.

wrist. It was a matching piece to Daniel's, a symbol of our eng

losed his fingers around it, a

action from Daniel, wearing a new dress, making his favorite food. He had thanked me p

had followed him. I expected to find him rea

a sanctuary of pea

n her dance costumes. And in the center of it all was Daniel, clutching her scarf like a lif

A placeholde

ars of my life, of my love, had been a lie. I ran out of the house

marriage to Michael Blackwood,