²𝘼𝙉𝙂𝙀𝙇 𝙊𝙁 𝘿𝙀𝙎𝙋𝘼𝙄𝙍 - 𝘪. 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘬 ✓

prologue

and when you can't sleep at
night, you hear my stolen lullabies

taylor swift ⸻ my tears ricochet

Like most people, Isabella Stark has a box of photos under her bed. Old photos from a time she could hardly remember. From time to time, she would take the box out and run her hands along the faces frozen in the moment, smiling, laughing. Her fingers would follow along the worn in groves in an almost religious like practice.

The faces of her mother, her father and her infant self-smiled back at her. Each photograph had the date it was taken and what was happening on the back. One of her favorites was a photo of her mom pushing her on a swing. It was labeled July 28th, 1997, Bellas first time on a swing. The face of her mom smiled back at her, a face she only knew through photographs.

She would take all the photos of her mother out and lay them on the floor. Pictures of her mother holding her after she was born, pictures of them at a park, pictures of her mom dressing her in cute outfits. The last photo she would handle with care, holding it like it was a delicate antique. It was a blurry photo; you could just barely make out her face. Her father had taken it of her, she was on a picnic blanket wearing a white sundress. Laying on her back, beaming up at the camera, but mostly to the man behind it. On the back it was labeled, August 30th, 1997, Cath and Tony on a picnic date. This was the last photo she had of her mom, just two days later she died.

Bella swore she had memories of her mother, actual memories, not just stories people had told her. She knew it was impossible, she was just two months old when the car accident happened. The memories were a little fuzzy, a flash of her mother's bright smile or her sparkling green eyes. But she still swore she had them. They were what kept her going.

The photos of her father she kept at the bottom of the box and would rarely look at. They showed a much different man, a younger one, one who cared about and loved her. She would look at them just to remind herself of the man he once was, not the alcoholic womanizer she knew now.

She would only spend a few minutes looking back at these photos, other times hours. Locked up in her room, pouring over each image, analyzing them, examining them. This routine comforted her in a sort of way.

When she finished, the photos all went back into the box and she would close the lid, carefully sliding it back into its place under her bed. And so, the cycle of loneliness would repeat itself until it became so unbearable that she would open the box again and get lost in the memories it contained.

. . . ⇢ ˗ˏˋ MILLIE SPEAKS! ࿐

I am so excited to write this fic! I've been planning it for almost a year and a half believe it or not! I'm really curious what your opinions on Bella and Tony are? Don't worry lots of character development will happen!

I also put the audio to the song I quote at the beginning of each chapter at the top. I would recommend listening to it while reading because the songs I chose remind me of each chapter and can add more depth to it! It can also immerse you more into the characters and what's happening! All the songs are also really good so there's that too lol. Maybe when I finish the book I can put a chapter of all the songs in order and make a Spotify playlist for it?

I probably won't post chapter one for a few more weeks. I want to get more future chapters fully written and edited first and then you can expect weekly updates.