Prologue One
Melissa
When I was nineteen years old, just a kid, I got married for the wrong reason. Obligation. Obligation to my family and obligation to my unborn child.
I can’t regret it because I have my three incredible sons who I love more than anything in this world, including myself.
They wanted for nothing, and I watched them grow into the amazing young men they all are. I got to watch them all fall madly in love and choose their life partners. Not out of obligation, but out of pure love.
I even got to watch my wonderful ex-husband fall madly in love. It just wasn’t with me. He was never in love with me. In all fairness, I was never in love with him either.
I became everyone’s project. Everyone wanted to fix me up with their son, their brother, their friend, their neighbor, their co-worker, their father.
No one cared what I wanted. Frankly, I wasn’t always sure what I wanted. I was never given the time when I was younger to figure out what it was I wanted in a partner.
One-hundred and eighteen first dates. After my divorce, I went on one-hundred and eighteen first dates before I figured out what I wanted and who I wanted it with.
It took a marriage, a divorce, and one-hundred and eighteen first dates to fall in love for the first time in my life. I finally found everything I never knew I was looking for. The man that made me feel things I’d never felt.
That’s supposed to be when happily ever after kicks in, right?
It took me fifty-two years to find that man. I shouldn’t have expected things to come that easily. Falling in love with him was the easy part. It’s everything that came after that was hard.
I’m Melissa Knight. This is my love story (it’s about damn time).
Prologue Two
Thirty-Three Years Ago
Melissa
I’m curled in a ball on the vinyl flooring of my bathroom. I’m in complete and total shock. I don’t think it’s registered. What the hell am I going to do? Is my life ruined? Am I ruining his life too? My parents are going to lose their ever-loving shit.
My roommate, Rayne, walks in and sees me on the ground. “Oh no.”
I look up at her. Tears start to well in my eyes.
She sighs. “It was positive?”
I slowly nod as I whisper, “Yes, all five of them.” I point to the five pregnancy tests sitting next to our sink.
She grabs my hand and pulls me into a seated position. She sits down next to me, both of our backs now leaning against the wall.
Rayne and I met last year. We were assigned as freshman dorm roommates. We hit it off right away, and now we live together now in the sorority house.
She rests her head on my shoulder. “What are you going to do?”
I shake my head. “I have no clue.”
“Are you going to tell him?”
“I…I…I don’t know what to say to him. We’ve only been dating for three months. How do I tell him that I’m pregnant?”
“He knows the condom broke, right?”
“He does, but I had just finished my period. I assured him that it couldn’t happen right after your period.”
She turns her head to me and widens her eyes. “I don’t think that’s true.”