FOR BETTER FOR WORSE

Is love a crime? Well, to many people it is in disguise. To the best of my knowledge love is pain, sacrifice, exhausting and sometimes toxic. At least that’s the love I watched my parents express to each other. Hey Readers, I’m AMY. My name is a Latin word which means “to love” one could say my parents named me that because of the love they shared, probably when they were still crazy/madly in love. Right now ‘in love’ I’m not sure but crazy……they definitely are. Let me walk you down the memory lane of how we lived way before this toxicity started. My family is a family of three, my ever charming, 6 ft 3, breath-taking, handsome blue-eyed father. Not to lie, he is everything a woman would ever wish for in a man. He’s book-smart, business-oriented, fashion-inclined well-travelled, the very best dad and the best husband ……... maybe was ‘a good’ husband. He answers the name ‘Mr. Rolland Ashford’. My mother, Ms. Elizabeth Ashford a well-travelled, elegant, calm and confident, culturally aware, gracefully dressed, emotionally intelligent, and carries herself with so much sophistication. She’s literally every man’s dream wife. The Ashford are one of the richest family in the community. We controlled so much wealth and affluence. We had generations of fortune rest on our surname…. By now, you might be wondering why I described their love as toxic ……. maybe their description screams perfection. My family WAS perfect trust me. What changed? That’s a question even I cannot answer YET. Dad has always wanted an heir, someone who he thought would continue his legacy. To him, he says he doesn’t discriminate no gender but his actions scream otherwise. For someone who is well read, he ought to know more. So much for being educated. To be fair, every family around us had an heir which kind of made us an outcast since my parents couldn’t conceive one. They’ve tried everything possible, IVF (In Vitro Fertilization), surrogacy name it! Nothing from it. They were under societal pressure. ‘ when will you conceive an heir’ like it some sort of award. It had effect on us as a family which was really unhealthy. I think that brought some diversion and weakened our unity and love. Everything was falling apart. Silence grew in our home. I wish we could be how we were. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Every cloud has a silver lining, my mum would always say anytime we complained about finances. We can’t even afford our basic needs not to speak of wants. My family was barely surviving. Hey there, I’m Ethan. The first of two kids. I’ve got a beautiful but really annoying younger sister, Sophie and my mum, Ms. Linda as most people would call her, bro that woman is my world. I grew up seeing her sacrifice every f*****g thing after my dad passed on when I was 6years old, my sister was 1year old. She could barely say dada then. I had to grow up really quick even though my mum has always been trying her best …… so they say “sometimes the best is barely enough”. Now I’m 25, the man of the house, but barely having anything to contribute to the house financially. Pressure rolling in. Oh my god! I have to man up and start making the moneyyyy only then will my mum rest and enjoy. Time, not on my side keeps ringing in my skull. Mum works for the Ashford family. They’ve been of great help to my household can’t lie. They literally have been sorting most of our bills for the longest. My mum started working for the family when I was 8 years old, barely two years after my dad’s death. Ms. Linda speaks a lot about Amy to me…. Well, I call my mum that sometimes too when I want to tease her. Amy and I are same age. I’ve met her once when I followed mum to work, I was 9 then. I had this mad crush on her. Gosh! She was this pretty, cute, beautiful, outspoken kid that I’ve always liked ever since I was 9. You could say it was love at first sight. The young kid was insanely pretty then. I’m sure she’s grown to be as beautiful as she was if not more. I’d argue she doesn’t even know me. Well, she might know Ms. Linda has kids but knowing or remembering me, I doubt. My mother often teases me about Amy. She goes on and on about her. I’m not going to say I regret telling her about my crush on her because she gets to gist me about her often which I love sooo much. I hope to see her sooonnnnnnnnnn.