Less Money, More Love

’s best, chilled champagne. The guest list at Rachel’s wedding was packed with old money and Fortune 500 heirs and h

her tears. They would spend the entire social affair strategically mixing and mingling

For anyone else, it would have been one of the best days of her life. For her it was just another expectation that sh

an to write her heart out. If the pages had mouths, they would be screaming her anger, lamenting her sadness, uttering her prayer for

as nineteen. Since then I have fallen in and out of love a

had found new strength with each word.

ld come first with her domineering father and then, to replace him, with Kurt, a cold, rude,

host in her mother’s absence. On that initial meeting, he was aloof and seemed to busy himself with making political alliances and standing with the old boys’ network her father wa

hardly uttered ten words the entire flight from California. What could have been an opportunity to get to know him better, transformed into a reason to dislike him

hat they would not be spending the night, lest he got any ideas about wha

to distance himself as a ruthless young hot shot, but lacking in the expected social graces necessary to gain entry within the truly wealthy circles he needed ac

rrival was preceded with her fa

will accept. Your marriage will be the key to a very lucrative merger of the wealth of our two families and give us even more financial

her and she was expected to comply without questions, complaints, or at

She was 21 and this would be for the rest of her life. The

ked romance or charm, “So, I think you know why I’m her

urt by her father. After she looked at it and put it on her own hand, and nodded in agreement, her father and her new fiancé excused themselves to sign some paperwork

ther, and, of course, her journal. She didn’t bother leaving a note