Love Defined

Part 2

Chapter 1

You need a husband.

Only four words and yet, they have the power to haunt your dreams and ruin any semblance of a relationship with family you may have. I had my life figured out to the tee. One thing I never planned on though was for my mother to reach her midlife crisis early and to start demanding I pop out a few grandchildren for her. I also never thought I'd hear my mother tell me I needed a husband.

For me, love has always been an illusion, a fictitious bubbly feeling that romance writers across the world love to push us to believe in. Sure it feels great when you read about the hero trekking across the wide expanses of the world all for the hope that the one he loves will return the sentiment. And yes, my heart melts slightly when I read about the unashamed declarations of love between characters that; for a couple hundred pages, I have been silently cheering on as they fought against the disasters of life that were threatening to pull them apart. But, that kind of love; the kind where another living soul would literally do all they can just for you, does not exist in the harsh and unforgiving reality that I have been living in for twenty seven years.

I was raised by a single mother; who from the stories she told me, was widowed when I was just seven months old. My mother loved to tell me about the whirlwind romance her and my father shared; from their chance meeting across the halls of their high school, to the first kiss they shared under the moonlight on the back of his pickup truck. To my mother; Anne Baker, the love my father had for her was real, even at the age of seventeen when she discovered she were expecting me, she still believed their love to be eternal. If you asked my mother, my father; Jack Piper, died of an accidental drug overdose.

If you asked me, that story is the biggest lie I've ever heard.

My mother is a talent when it comes to embellishing the truth, so much that for the first thirteen years of my life, I believed that baring a name that tied me to my father was a blessing. My Nana changed that for me. My Nana made me see the truth of the world.

Love is a hoax.

I remember the day it all happened. My Nana had sat me down at the kitchen table, her face was pulled into a grim frown and her eyes were the coldest I had ever seen them. "Piper," began my grandmother. "It's time you knew the truth. Your daddy didn't die of an accidental overdose on sleeping pills. He left your mama."

And that was all it took for my cocooned life to tumble down around me. I was later told that my father had actually left my mother when she found out she was pregnant. He was only nineteen, two years my mom's senior. He wanted to be young but my mother wanted to settle down. His solution meant leaving my mother and instead backpacking across Europe. We never heard from him and it was believed that he married a German actress only three years after I was born.

There was a moment where I doubted my Nana but, a quick internet search had showed me the truth. My father didn't care for me and my mother had lied to me. My teenage years were rough for my mother, what with my tantrums and blatant dislike for her. Having my mother as the headmistress at my high school hadn't helped anything for either of us. My mother always hoped it would bring us closer but in reality, I drew further away from her. The life my mother had created for me wasn't all bad; in fact I was better off than most people.

I just despised love.

My mother tried to change my views though. I was pushed into dates with boys I would never think of speaking to or seeing but because of my mothers' insistence, I accepted the dates and sabotaged them so that they left me.

My teenage years were not the highlight of my existence. I had chosen to focus on making my dream a reality. My determination however meant that I was in every sense of the word; a social outcast. I didn't let it stop me though. I was going to work hard to get my diploma in Patisserie and I was going to own the best specialty bake store in all of Calistoga. I wasn't going to find love and I wasn't going to dream of a happily ever after.