TimeBound (Time Tells #1) (COMPLETED)

Chapter One

I stand before the mirror.

I barely recognised myself.

My mother stands behind me, crying. Weeping. I had yet to see my father. I wasn't surprised despite what day it was today, because I had barely seen him all of last week. My father had always always been strong. Proud. A good man. The last few times I had seen him, he looked like a man defeated in life.

Another reason today was the worst day of my life.

Dread pools in my stomach and spreads outwards. I was a vision in white, but if anyone could look on the inside, they would see only bleak darkness. Overwhelming sorrow.

My mom takes a step forward and wraps her arms around me. It's all I can do to not allow the cracks inside me to break me open and splay my wounds to the salt that was my reflection. A stark reminder that I was getting married.

Today was my wedding day.

I turn away from the mirror and step out of my mother's arms. I walk towards the door, taking the knob in my palm. My hands were trembling.

"Alanna." My mother's voice cracks.

I turn to look at her. Her eyes were red rimmed, her nose was running and her heartbreak was evident in her gaze. Her lips part and she starts to say something. Then, she stops, as if the words get stuck in her throat. Her chin trembles.

My already bleeding heart pulsates pain. I walk back to her to her and wrap my arms around her.

"Mom." I murmur against her hair.

She smells like she always has. Vanilla and butter. From her skin cream. I press a kiss to her head.

"I love you, mom." I say. Her shoulders begin to shake. I tighten my arms around her.

I turn away when her sobs begin to rake at the walls containing my pain.

"You look beautiful." She whispers brokenly as I walk quickly to the door and wrench it open, stepping out and closing it tight behind me.

I freeze, seeing my father. Not because I see him, but because there was a light in his eyes. A frenzied look.

"Daddy?" I whisper.

His fingers wrap around my wrist. His hands shake.

"Baby, let's go." he starts to pull me along with him.

I just about have time to gather my dress to keep up with him.

"Where are we going?" I ask him.

"Away." he says, turning right towards the corridor that leads to the stairs down.

Stairs down to the exit.

Elation in realization of what he was doing. Heart wrenching pain because...we couldn't.

I stop and pull at his hold and he turns. He was sweating, his hair was in a disarray and his eyes were shifting, looking around us.

"Dad." I say.

"Baby, I would rather die than—"

I stop him with a shake of my head. I feel the ferocious need with which my father wants to protect me. Remove me from this place. This fate.

"Daddy, it's not just your life. It's the lives of thousands of people who work for us. With us." I say.

He hesitates, then his jaw hardens, "I will find another way." he says.

There was no other way. He knew this. We were bankrupt.

I smile at him sadly.

My father drops his hand from my arm and covers his eyes. His shoulders begin to shake.
I had never in all the years of my life seen my father cry. The man who had carried me on his shoulders, who'd wiped my tears, kissed my wounds, stood before me broken. A sob caught my throat.