Piece By Piece

Prologue

In a world were there are fewer weddings and less people starting families, the Government decided to implement "Arranged Marriages". This is usually done to unite different families or as business deals. It has been like this for a few generations now and there are very few people who still remember what it was like to marry freely. From the moment you turn eighteen years old, you are eligible to get married, whether you want to or not.

At this time and age, women are raised to be "statuette" wives and to have "statuette" families, everything having to be perfect and they are to be seen and not heard. Many accept their fate, pouring themselves into their families, losing their identities in the process. But there are others who fight it with everything they have, trying to stay true to themselves, only to resign to their fates in the end.

As for the men, they are expected to marry a "statuette" wife, either of their father's choosing or, in case the father is deceased, to fulfill a promise or to close a business deal. It is instilled in them, from a very young age, that women and children are to be seen and not heard and that is what they should look for in a wife. And it doesn't matter how old they are, if they are still able to have children, they're expected to marry.

But as in everything, there are a few exceptions. Those who, by one way or another, manage to marry for love: those who marry their childhood sweethearts, or those who fall in love with someone who just so happens to be a good match for them and both families agree with the union. They are called by the rest as "The Lucky Ones", for they never have to know what it's like to lose themselves and become someone they don't recognize.