Hours Of Life

0900hrs-1000hrs

February 15th, 2017 (twenty-four years old)

... the world is full of promises...

... And I want to make some of my own.

I think I'm dreaming.

That must be the only explanation for the situation that I am in right now. I feel happier than any girl in the world right now. A solid reason why I am convinced it is a dream.

I can't help the terror that crawls up my spine every time I think about Cole though.

Last night had been the worst night of my life. Cole had come to the house when I had explicitly told him not to. I had already told him many times, even as children, that I couldn't love him the way he wanted me to love him. I didn't deserve the love he could give me. It was painful to have to tell him that for what would probably be the very last time I would see him again.

But those were last night's problems.

Today was a blissful affair that those events couldn't dampen my moods no matter how much my memories tried. I was about to permanently fix myself in the life of the man I loved with everything in me.

My dress was perfect. Holly and Molly were incredible at taking care of everything. I knew they were kind people, but they still found new ways to show me this as they did my hair.

They told me how the family was taking the news. Their father was not going to come. He was already engaged in other businesses that had taken him to the other side of the world. Judy was nowhere to be seen, but they said she had vowed to support me on this happy occasion. I felt like Bella Swan in a normal world here.

I think I had judged the woman too harshly the first few days I had seen her.

"And Dylan came from his tour too!" one of the pair, I couldn't be sure if it as Molly or Holly with the identical bride's maid dresses they wore, rattled on.

I loved Dylan as if he were my very own brother. He was the one, together with Judy, who came to convince me not to run away from them.

The whole thing seemed like it happened hours ago even though it had been years now. Madam Shirley had just called me into her room in the middle of the night and told me she didn't have much time left. I should have called the ambulance, but the woman didn't want it. She was content with the life she had lived till eighty-two years of age.

She told me to tell her family that she went in her sleep, thinking about them. I wish I had a mother like Madam Shirley. But Sister Gwen is still my giant.

The next few weeks saw every one of Madam Shirley's lineage come to pay their respects at her funeral. That was the first time I saw Dylan. Michael didn't argue with him until the funeral was over. Dylan didn't stay the night in the house.

I had asked Judy and Michael for a day or two so I could vacate their house. My job was now null and void. That and the house would never feel the same without my boss in it.

Judy had pleaded with me to wait for a few more days because they needed to be there for the reading of the will and no one knew how to manage the mansion better than me. It seemed innocent enough of a reason to stay and help my former boss's family.

But when the lawyer actually read that will, I would have been safer several miles away from Michael.

Madam Shirley had left all the millions currently in her bank account to the grandson who had left his father for a dream, and the house help she had rescued from a miserable nightmare of a life.

Michael did not take the news well. He had no real opposition to it because the money was such a small portion to the empire Madam Shirley had left under his and his children's name. But it still bothered him why Dylan and I were included.

That was the first time I saw Judy stand up to her husband. She did it with enough authority that he did not speak for a long while.

I wanted to leave this family. I had nothing to do with what was going on here. I was prepared to return to Sister Gwen and find some new business with the money I had been saving. My life did not need this complication.

That's when I realized Marcus wanted me to stay. Even if Dylan and Judy were the ones who came to persuade me, I only stayed because of Marcus.

And he was the reason I was happy today as I was walking down the aisle to where he stood, dressed in solid black. His chestnut hair was jelled back in a way I had never seen it before. But I liked it very much.

I could see all my friends there. Stacy with her husband. Sister Gwen and all her peers. My life was somehow resembling a dream I had been having since I was a child.

The priest asked us in turn if we promised to love each other for the rest of our days. If we would forever cherish our moments together and never separate until death did us part. Marcus' pledge was with such confidence that it made me cry as I accepted the vow as well.

It was a promise I would do my best to keep till the end of days.