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Prologue

Prologue

I'd always thought I knew who I was. There wasn't much to know about me, after all. I was a normal girl with a normal life. I was shy, self-conscious, and overweight. There was nothing special about me and most people never took notice, but I preferred it that way. Earning attention meant more people said hurtful things about me, and I hated that.

Life wasn't perfect, but it was mine. I was Brittany O'Neill, a girl who could exist in every town. If you saw me, you might notice my weight, but otherwise, you'd look away more focused on more interesting people. I was a nineteen-year-old girl, not sure where she was going in life but looking for something. Anything that could change my life from what it had been for so long.

A girl who lost her father at a young age and missed him every single day. Who had a supportive mother who made everything about her children and never herself. An older brother who was funny, loving, and attentive, but had issues just like his sister. Whose one and only best friend who had a heart of gold and would never leave her. My life wasn't interesting, but looking back, I was happy.

What would come later would be somewhere in between my birth and also much earlier. Perhaps I'd played a passive role, or perhaps I'd played a much larger role in all that was to come. I couldn't have predicted how it would go, not in my wildest dreams, but maybe no one could. It would be full of great highs, tragic lows, plenty of pain, but also hope and joy.

My life was never just about me, it was about the many people who had come into my life who either stayed or left. My decisions would affect others and their decisions would affect me in a variety of ways. I couldn't have done it without them, and I'd like to think they couldn't have done it without me. They probably could have, but my presence changed everything.

Many events led up to what eventually happened, but I focused on a dream. A dream that was my mom's, my brother's, and my own. Dreaming of an excellent education at a prestigious college that would lead us to good lives our late dad would be proud of. The best-laid out plans rarely worked out. Much like ours didn't. Once we embarked on that dream, things were never the same.

There were many times I looked back on that, wishing we never went at all, but we couldn't run from things that truly needed to happen. A path to self-discovery, true love, and bonds with family friends. I have plenty of people to thank for that, both great friends and terrible enemies. They all played a role in my life, and I played a role in theirs. That was how it was supposed to be.

However, if I had to thank three people, I knew who they would be, and it was all about choice. They all loved me in their own way, and all was pure in the end. My love for them would never fade, even if that too would be tested time and time again. Even now, as time has passed, it remains. Their love for me and mine for them. Now I understood everything, but it was different back then. My life and what was to come was largely a façade of which I'd never been aware.

This was my story and also the story of many others. One decision became the catalyst of change for so many. We knew it wasn't going to be easy, but perhaps we didn't realize it was going to be hard either. In the end, it was time for all of us to decide for ourselves and for others. Yes, this story is about all of us and maybe I was just chosen to tell it.