Old Dreams Fade
By the seventh year of my relationship with Vanessa McBride, she inherited everything her late sister, Rebecca Holloway, had left behind, including her brother-in-law, Derek Holloway.
Every time Vanessa returned from Derek's room, she would hold me close and whisper softly, "Just wait a little longer, Grant. Once I give him a child, we'll finally have our wedding."
It was the only condition her family had imposed for her to inherit the McBride legacy.
In the six months after returning to the capital, Vanessa went to Derek's room regularly.
At first, it was once a month. Then, once every few weeks. Eventually, it became almost every other night.
And after six months of being alone every night until dawn, the news finally arrived.
Vanessa was pregnant.
But the announcement that followed shattered whatever hope I had left. She and Derek were getting married.
"Daddy, is someone getting married?"
Looking at the wedding decorations filling our home, I pulled my confused daughter into my arms.
"Yes," I told her quietly. "Mom is marrying the person she loves. So it's time for us to move out too."
What Vanessa never understood was that marriage was never what mattered most to me.