Then
© Cordelia Monroe 2022
This is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents in this book are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Trigger/content warning: This book contains detailed sexual scenes as well as scenes of domestic abuse and violence. Please do not read if these concern you.
Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess who lived a sad life of solitude after the tragic death of her parents. She had no other family to care for her, so she ended up in foster care. The care system didn’t do too badly by her. She was placed with a kind couple who couldn’t have their own children. They gave her everything she needed but at fourteen she had no interest in being their daughter. She was someone’s daughter and those someones were gone. So she smiled and behaved and waited for the day she could escape to live her own life. Like many young girls she dreamed of a future vastly different to her present; she dreamed of meeting her true love and building a new family that would never leave her.
Fast forward seven years and the princess left university with a first class honours degree that led her to take a internship with a prestigious advertising firm. The hours were long and the pay low, but the princess loved her work and quickly rose as a star in the company, catching the attention of the bosses and one in particular - the prince of our tale.
The prince was everything you’ve come to expect from the stories of old - tall and strong, blonde with blue eyes, classically handsome and charming with it. He fell in love with the princess instantly and proceeded to woo her with beautiful flowers and gifts, expensive dinners and romantic getaways. It wasn’t long before she fell in love with him and fantasised about the beautiful future they would have together.
One night, after a lovely meal at an exclusive restaurant, the prince got down on one knee and asked the princess to be his bride. She accepted with tears of joy, thrilled to have found the love of her life and excited to begin the family she had dreamed of.
But this is no fairytale.
For the prince was truly a villain, the love was a lie, and the princess?
The princess became a nobody. A ghost. A secret.
But this isn’t the end. For every broken heart, there’s one that can fix it. For every lost soul, there’s one looking for it.
For every lock, there is a key.
“Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness.” Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
