**Staring Into the Void**
Tom and Emily married when they were just nineteen. They couldnt bear to be aparttheir love was wild, reckless. Their parents, fearing what might happen if they waited, hurried to make it official.
The wedding was lavish, unforgettable. All the traditions were there: ribbons on the bonnet, bouquets everywhere, fireworks, a grand reception, the guests shouting, “Kiss the bride!” Emilys parents couldnt contributethey barely had enough for food, let alone drink. Toms mother, Margaret Elizabeth, covered everything. She preferred to be called Maggie.
Maggie had warned Tom against Emily. “A drunkards daughter will bring you no good,” shed say. But Tom wouldnt listen. He swore Emily was differentthat their love would conquer all.
For a while, life was kind. Emily gave birth to two girls, Lucy and Sophie. Tom adored them, proud as any man could be. But before five years had passed, Emily began vanishing for hours, then days. When she returned, Tom smelled alcohol on her breath. He begged for answers. At first, she said nothingthen spat the truth: shed never loved him. It was just a silly infatuation.
Now, shed found the love of her lifea married man with three daughters. She vanished with him to some remote village, leaving the children behind.
Maggie, sharp as a tack, took the girls in. She and her husband doted on them. Tom, lost without Emily, fell into despair. A mate dragged him to a religious group, where they quickly married him off to a widow, Claire, with two sons. Claire made sure Tom had no time for his own daughters. “Their mother should care for them,” shed snap.
Tom obeyed. He still loved Emily, but the path back was closed.
Seven years later, Emily turned up at Maggies door, holding a four-year-old girl.
“Lifes roughed you up, hasnt it?” Maggie said dryly. “This your daughter?”
“YesMolly. Can we stay?”
Maggie scoffed. “Got kicked out, did you?”
“I left. He drinks. He hits me.”
“Your choice, wasnt it? Why not go to your parents?”
Emily hesitated. “I missed the girls. Let me see them.”
“Only now you remember them?”
Before she could answer, Lucy and Sophie arrived. They stared at their mother, cold with resentment.
Maggie let them staywhat else could she do? But a month later, Emily vanished again, back to her “sweet tormentor,” abandoning Molly. Now Maggie had three girls to raise.
Years passed. Maggie and her husband died. Lucy married but never had children. Sophie stayed single. At seventeen, Molly had a baby with no father in sight and ran off to join Emily.
Emilys lover, now ill, was taken by his daughters, who blamed her for his downfall. The village called her a shameless drunk.
Tom finally escaped Claire and the cult. He lived alone in his mothers flat, scraping by, keeping three cats for company.
Happiness had knocked once. They hadnt listened.
