Forbidden Love

"How can I love you if I don't even know how to love myself?" I questioned, choking back the salty tears that were threatening to escape from my eyes.

He delicately wiped away a tear as it fell down my cheek and said in complete and utmost sincerity, "You have a misconception of love. Aleah, love is not what you see on television or movies or in books, it is so much more than that. I can show you what love is, real genuine love. I will love you, even when it is so-called 'forbidden', and even if they don't want us to be together. I will love you now and for a thousand years to come, just trust me."

Aleah Edwards never believed in true love, the men in her life made her lose all faith in love, she saw it like a fairytale fantasy, a bedtime story, the kind you'd read to put children asleep at night. Her idea of love is what she saw unfold on the screen.

From afar it would appear as though her walls were made of steel and iron. That is exactly what she wanted everyone to think. A cold heart was the only way she knew how to protect herself from the harsh world she lived in. Her walls were barriers protecting her heart from being trampled on.

Until one faithful day, she met the boy who inevitably changed her life forever.

No matter how many books Aleah has read, it could never be enough to prepare her for what was coming her way.

The two of them discovered something about their parent's past, a horrendous history that their families swore to take to the grave with them, and never let their children find out.

Will this family secret destroy their relationship? Will they fight for love? And will Aleah finally learn what it is to love? To love someone unconditionally, even when it is forbidden.