Prologue

My life has never been perfect. Ever. Complicated, maybe, but never perfect.

You see, I grew up in a dysfunctional divorced family where my dad and mom lived entirely different lives. My father had me and my brother, Andrew, before he realised that he was actually gay and then left my mom for a male French supermodel. I was eight at that time.

My mom, who was deeply distraught over the whole thing went man-crazy and dated anything with a dick between its legs for 2 years straight before she finally decided to settle down and therefore remarried a stupidly rich North American billionaire who was a politician and she became the typical socialite housewife. Two years after, that fiasco of a marriage ended, she divorced Shane and got remarried to Tim who was a big shot movie producer with an anorexic daughter that was a stupid, arrogant brat who made it her mission to make my life a living hell. She succeeded.

Unfortunately, it was during that marriage that my mom got pregnant and I ended up with a sibling who I was older than with 13 years. His name's Howard. Surprisingly, mom lasted 4 years with Tim before she decided to divorce him too but they remained friends afterwards.

Tim, who was also a billionaire, paid ridiculously expensive child support checks every month to my mom. I almost pitied him but then again, I kind of lived on those checks, so.

After my mom's marriage with Tim fell, a few months later we moved to Atlanta, my mom's hometown, where we finally settled and I met my best friend Jesse in my junior year of high school.

It was also where I met him. Henry Wallace.

The Wallace family are one of the wealthiest and most influential families in all of Atlanta, Georgia, and my mom just so happened to be long time best friends with Anastasia Wallace who introduced me to her son.

It was love at first sight. Or at least for me it was. Henry quickly became my everything. In high school he was my protector. No one dared talk to me anyhow or even look at me twice. Henry always dealt with them, and to my stupid 16 year old self, he was a hero.

We quickly began dating and soon at the age of 18, shortly after our high school graduation, I got pregnant. When my dad and Andrew found out, it was a horrible experience for me. I couldn't stop crying at that time from the shame and disgrace that I felt. How could I be so stupid, I had asked myself several times.

But my mom's reaction was entirely different. She was fucking ecstatic. She loved the idea of her grandchild being a Wallace and she wanted to have family ties to her best friend so she practically forced us to get married.

After she gave me a long ass pep talk on how beneficial it would be to marry Henry both emotionally, financially and otherwise contrary to raising the child on my own, my 18 year old self didn't think twice and soon Henry and I were married. At first it wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be. He was attentive and caring and he made me feel so special and loved. It was bliss. And then, he had to go off to college which sucked and put a slight strain on our communication and in turn, our relationship . I ended up giving birth to my twin babies, Jamie and Jason, so I was pretty much stuck at home everyday with the nanny Mrs Wallace had hired for me, my childlike self learning to take care of two children.

I had thought that after college things would get better between Henry and I and that he would be at home more, be a better father and husband, but it didn't. Rather, it pivoted for the worst. Henry began working for his father's company seeing as he was the heir and only male child so I went from seeing him about 3 times a week to never seeing him at all.

And then the twins grew older. By the time they were three years old I was bored out of my mind with staying at home everyday and that was when I took an interest in painting and art in general. Turned out, I was great at it and I actually had a passion for it so I developed my artistic skills and soon I was selling my works. I never got an art degree but apparently it isn't necessary when you have the right connections.

At some point our distance began to feel normal. I didn't feel the need anymore to try and approach him about it because it seemed to me that he began to resent me, choosing instead to spend late nights in his office rather than come home. It almost seemed like he was avoiding me.

I had so many theories as to what might have caused this that I almost drove myself crazy, I was never able to figure it out though.

So, finally, after 5 years of a loveless marriage where I barely saw my husband and he paid little to no attention to his children, I was completely fed up so I asked for a divorce.

The whole divorce process was a struggle and it really made me toughen up.

That was when I really realized the true power of the Wallace family. Henry fought me tooth and nail for full custody of our children and I had to pull all the strings I could and call in favours from all angles. It was then that I was thankful for all my mother's previous lovers and husbands. They came in handy.

When presented with the fact that Henry never saw his children and I spent all my time with them and I was still earning enough to take care of them from selling my paintings, the court granted me custody and Henry, visitation rights. It was a win-win for everybody but the Wallace family wasn't satisfied. Or at least Henry and his father weren't. It's not like I cared what they wanted anyway.

The only thing I really appreciated during that period was my mom's never ending support and the presence of my children around me just radiating their positive energy. I was surprised that my mom actually allowed me go through with the divorce and even helped me. I guess she saw how miserable I truly was.

My Henry was long gone and in his place was a hardened man who was married to his work.

After a few months, I moved to Washington when I got a job opportunity there. It was great and the move was needed so after getting the court's consent, I left Atlanta.

The kids were happy with the change so I was happy. Henry occasionally came to visit, mostly when he had business to take care of up there though.

I missed the Henry that I knew. That Henry would have actually fought for our marriage for me and not just for the fact that I had male children who were his heirs.

After three years up in the capital, I decided to move back home to Atlanta. I didn't know what to expect, but it definitely wasn't what happened.

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A/n

THE PROLOGUE IS HERE! I'm so excited for this book guys, like you don't even know how much.

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