Page 2 of Love Me

I will always wonder how I got so lucky to meet my soulmate at such a young age. We’ve been friends since we were in diapers, always gravitating toward one another until we were old enough to understand what was happening between us.

He presses a tender kiss on my lips. “You’re perfect.”

“You’re in love,” I reply, then put his hand on my heart. “This is yours. I’m yours.”

His eyes burn with intensity, the blue darkening to almost black. “Only mine.”

“Only yours.”

“And I’m yours. There’s no one but you for me, Celine.”

A solitary tear rolls down my cheek, and he kisses it away. Everything in him is made to comfort me, to love me.

Outside the window, dusk creeps over the horizon. Wanting to memorize what took place today, I close my eyes to secure our union in a box filled with my most treasured memories. When I open them again, he pulls me into his arms––the only place I call home.

“Let’s stay here,” I suggest.

He groans, dragging a hand down his face. “Grandmother summoned me.”

You don’t say no to the matriarch of the Family. Placing a kiss on his chest, I sigh. “Don’t make her wait.”

“I don’t care. The world could burn, and my only concern would be you, my wife.”

I lift on my toes to kiss him. His wife. My husband. It feels right. It doesn’t matter that I am seventeen and he’s eighteen. What we have transcends social norms.

“Are you scared?” I ask.

He cocks his head. “Of the initiation? I think all the hype is meant to scare us.”

“I am.” I wish I were braver. I sigh, and his arms tighten around me like a makeshift heaven.

“I would destroy this world to take care of you.” He says it like a vow set in stone, his tone hard. He would. I know he would. “It’s my responsibility, my honor, my life.”

We watch the sun go down, then take the path through the forest home, hand in hand.

“I’ll come to you right after,” he says once we reach my front door.

With a parting kiss, he leaves, and unease spreads inside me.

We have grown up knowing we must be worthy of our place in the Family. Grandmother, the matriarch of the five families, always says family duty comes first. We go through the so-called initiation when she deems the time has come. It’s a test to show our loyalty to the Family.

Grandmother’s impressive architectural mansion stands proudly on the top of the hill. Just like her, challenging time and commanding respect.

The other families’ houses are at the foot of the hill, circling the large mansion. Six houses, but one has been left to the whims of nature, carrying a ghostly warning. It stands as a reminder to the rest of us that if we do something wrong, we can just as easily be eliminated.

Five remained from the original six families: The Astors, the Vosses, the Sinclairs, the Langleys, and the Fairchilds. Each rules over a particular business sector, amassing power and impressive fortunes.

Our family history began two hundred years ago. The founding families bought land in Delaware until they owned the entire peninsula. Through marriage alliances and smart investment strategies, they built an empire. Eventually, they ventured into other business endeavors like finance, healthcare, real estate, retail, telecommunication, and education. The Family has its hands in every key sector of society. Untouchable, unfathomably rich, and powerful.

The matriarch or patriarch of the Family is the unofficial ruler of the region. And every generation has its own leader: the firstborn.

A vast patch of land in Greenville acts as the family compound. The ruler, my grandmother, delegates the mayor, controls the police, and owns most resources like land and money. But in the end, we all have to comply and be the perfect, obedient representatives of the Family. There is no free will when you’re born into a dynasty.

An eerie silence welcomes me as I step inside my two-story British colonial-style home. I pass by a family portrait on the wall in the middle of the hallway. It was taken right after I turned five, and it’s the last of me and my parents together. Even though the pain over their passing has dulled, the wound in my heart pulses every time I walk past it.

Upstairs and down the hall, my spacious bedroom, with a wall made entirely of one-way glass, awaits me. Digging my feet into the plush carpet, I stare at the fairy lights dangling from the ceiling. Thinking of Kaden, I gaze longingly at the queen-sized bed in the middle of the room.

After getting changed for bed, I look out the window. Dark blue paints the sky, the night replacing the day in their constant chase. He’ll be here soon, and the knowledge soothes me.

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