Synopsis: The tragic tale of what happened to the girl who had all the love.
The Girl They Loved Too Much
A beautiful woman sat rocking her baby in a white wicker chair.
Lauren Heart was 32, this was her first child after many years of trying and nothing, not even a failing marriage, could change the way she felt about her precious baby daughter.
She gently kissed the infants forehead as she looked out of the open widow. There were kids playing in the street, and behind the houses she could see the forest were she'd hung out with her friends as a teenager. She'd had her first kiss in those woods, all those years back, now it seemed like forever ago. It was as though her youth had only lasted an instant, though the memories of those times would always trigger a fond smile. All at once she found herself humming a familiar tune. She looked down at the baby and began to sing to her the lines from a song she'd once sang as a young girl.
"Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high,
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby"
It wasn't long before she heard footsteps in the hall and in he minced looking as proud as punch.
"Beautiful" he praised resting his hands upon his wife's shoulders as he dotingly peered in at the baby.
As soon as Lauren felt his touch she shook him off and rose to her feet. With her back to him, she promptly made her way to the far end of the room.
David Heart lowered his eyes, awkwardly hugging his plump torso to hide his twitching hands. He was a meek man but he loved his wife dearly, which made it very hard to know of her unhappiness.
"Dinner's on the table sweetheart," was all he said before he quietly left the room.
"You're daddy's a good man Amy," whispered Lauren guiltily after a few moments silence,
"and he loves us both a great deal," she continued however she now appeared to be reassuring herself more than the 5 week old child.
"Yes," she said as she walking slowly to the threshold of the nursery with Amy happily nestled in her warm embrace, "things will get better now for this family."
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
If you've ever heard of the term 'glue baby' then you'll know why Lauren was so eager to convince herself that things would work out . A glue baby comes along when you're marriage has just about withered away to what seems like the point of no return.
Lauren no longer loved her husband, in fact her love for him had died out many years ago. David had always known that Lauren married him on a whim, they were eighteen and full of illusions, never really gave a thought to long term.
Back then though, it was natural for couples to get married once they'd finished school, and that summer there were at least 50 other marriages just like theirs. The only difference with this one was that David had not been Lauren's high school sweetheart. He'd just been the one there for her when the love of her life had cheated on her in senior year and gotten some other girl pregnant.
They had been friends for quite a while, David could always make her laugh for he was the original class clown and Lauren couldn't resist a good joke. Little did she know that the laughter wouldn't last long.
By the time they were 22 it was clear that neither of them were going places, David had found work in a local engine factory while Lauren was busy wasting her days in a dead-end job as a waitress. It wasn't the sort of life they had envisioned for themselves but they stuck it out regardless.
A year later David was declared unfit to work leaving Lauren to be the breadwinner. It was hard work and David resented having to depend on his wife but no matter where he went in search of work passing the medical always seemed to thwart him.
The years went by and David appeared to grow balder and fatter by the month, while his beautiful wife slaved away day in day out in a dingy bar with middle-aged men drooling at her.
Her life had only just begun and already Lauren was sick of it She often cringed to see her old classmates who'd come in from time to time for a snide look at the girl who had once been their prom queen. At least when she came home dinner would always be ready on the table and the house was kept immaculate. David knew he'd never be able to treat his princess to the kind of life she deserved but he did everything he could to make things easier.
Lauren was not a selfish woman she loved her husband for his goodness, but they had never been soul mates and that was something she could not deny. During their mid twenties the marriage inevitably hit a rough patch which is when Lauren first began to talk of a divorce. David badly wanted children and Lauren couldn't bare the thought of tying herself even tighter to a man she no longer wanted to spend her life with.
One day Lauren came home early from work and packed her bags, David was out and so she sat on her bed and began to write a goodbye letter for when he came home. Many times she started that letter but the guilt got to her so badly that by the time she was on her fifth draft it was too late. She heard his key in the door and down she came to find her husband, standing in the doorway with tears in his eyes, looking as though he'd just been slapped in the face. For a moment, Lauren wondered if he somehow knew that her bags were sealed and waiting upstairs. Though she soon realized that it was something very different which had caused her husbands upset. In his his hand he held a letter that was shaking violently below his waist. Spying this, Lauren suddenly recalled why he had gone out this morning... for a doctor's appointment.
At just 26 David Heart was diagnosed with M.S, a slow, progressive disease that quite often ends in death. Lauren couldn't bare the thought of leaving a dying man, the idea had been bad enough before, but now it seemed so much more cruel. So she stuck by him and let herself become convinced by the thought that having a baby would help hold things together. David had been pestering her to have children for years now and it was decided that perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad idea to finally grant him his wish. She knew her husband would be a wonderful father and maybe seeing that would help consolidate whatever feelings she still had for him.
However, like most things in their life, creating happy family's turned out to be a much harder task than they'd first imagined. Thankfully David's disease had remained fairly stagnant but as the years grew on and the couple remained childless, his fertility was eventually brought into question. The chances of having a child with a man who was terminally ill soon started to look bleaker. As they reached their thirties Lauren fell into depression, she was getting older and had nothing to account for it. Her tolerance with David had begun to wear thin and she no longer looked at him as husband but more as the man who had stolen her life away.
David remained as infatuated as ever, which didn't exactly help things, for his love of Lauren was often so besotted he denied to accept that she was depressed. He didn't realize that showering her with love every waking hour would do nothing but further repulse his wife, who was desperately searching for a way out.
Then out of the blue, the baby came along.
Both were so surprised when Lauren finally became pregnant, though as you can image their reactions were very different.
So now we come back to the matter of this 'glue baby', an unlikely adhesive to keep the two from falling apart. In fact the only thing that seemed to be stopping Lauren by this stage was the love she had for her little girl. She wanted her daughter to have a proper childhood and she knew no other father could care for her more than David. Indeed she loved her daughter too much to deprive her of this even if that meant depriving herself. Lauren was determined to do the right thing, not only for Amy but for David as well. She knew perhaps he didn't have many years left and she didn't want to take from him the sacred memories of his daughters childhood. Little did she know this would be the very thing she herself would never see...
:-) Thanks for the coments guys. I totally agree and yes, it was a prologue, I'll get to work on a redraft soon, meanwhile here is the start of chapter one:
(btw it's already been approved, I just didn't want to post too much at once)
Chapter 1
"Morning dad," smiled a sixteen year old Amy Heart as she bustled into the kitchen with her nightgown still on. After bunging a few waffles in the toaster she buoyantly skipped across and planted a small kiss on her fathers head.
"My someone's in a good mood today" said David, lowering his newspaper to have a look at his only child.
Amy was quite small for her age and had long, dark brown hair that she always wore in a loose bun. Her big hazel eyes were just like her mother's though she took her rounded face and chubby cheeks from dad. She was a happy girl and never without a pleasant smile, her smile as David now reflected was just like Lauren's as well.
"Well?" he grinned suspiciously
"Nothing, I'm just happy that's all," she said, trying hard to hide her blushing cheeks as she dipped her knife into the butter.
"All right then," said David leisurely and gave her one last quizzical look before retuning to his newspaper.
"So are we still on for tonight?" asked Amy as she leapt up to retrieve her waffles from the toaster.
"You betcha" replied David with a keen voice.
"Will you be looking to go out shopping with your friends today? Because if you are it's no problem sweetheart" he continued, remembering that he'd received an extra bit of cash from a painting he'd sold on e-bay.
"Bowls and shopping?" chuckled Amy, "Someone must be well-off this week."
"Sure you know I'd give you the world if I could princess," he said, putting down the paper and
gladly reaching for his wallet. It wasn't often that he could afford to treat Amy but whenever he had the change he was always more than pleased to do so.
Seeing him place his money down beside her made the young girl feel slightly guilty. Amy may not have been as spoiled as some of the kids at school but she understood it wasn't easy for an employed man to be raising a teenager all by himself. Besides, she knew she was spoiled with something far more precious than money.
"Nah, I was actually planing to go see aunt Meg today instead," she said, sliding the cash back across the table to him.
"Sweetheart really it's o.k" said David, automatically offering it back.
"Dad I'm fine," she insisted getting to her feet and giving him a hug, "I really do just want to go and see Meg"
"Well, if you're sure." he said finally though he still looked a little hesitant as he folded the money back into his wallet.
"Course I'm sure," she beamed widely "Me and Meg have got stuff to talk about."
"But I thought we told each other everything," sulked David feeling a little left out.
"Yeah well there's certain things a girl just can't discuss with her dad."
"Like what?" he asked, feeling even more indignant and now perhaps with a hint of worry in his eyes.
A devilish smirk spread across Amy's face as she made her way out of the kitchen.
Turning back over her shoulder she took great pleasure in delivering two simple words she was
certain would shut him up.
"Women's problems."
"Right then," said David sheepishly as he promptly began fumbling for his newspaper.
Re: The Girl They Loved Too Much
Linear Mode
