Full Circle-Alternate Cover: A Cinderella Retelling

Prologue

Celeste

Mama always usedto say that life comes full circle. Some of my earliest memories are of her explaining that what goes around comes around because my mama believed in the power of karma. It made her feel better to imagine rude customers at The Comfy Cushion, our family’s restaurant, stubbing their toe or having an umbrella turn inside out than for her to reply in kind. Poor manners were inexcusable, according to Mama.

She didn’t live long enough to explain the concept of soulmates to me, but I’d like to think that she and Daddy were destined to be together. They used to turn up the old jukebox at closing time after all the customers left and slow dance right there in the middle of the dining area.

I know it devastated him when Mama passed, called too soon by the good Lord. At least, that’s what the preacher said. Daddy didn’t abide much by the church, but my nana said her daughter wasn’t a heathen and wouldn’t be buried like one, so the preacher man came out and said his piece. Daddy was a blubbering mess by the end of it, so who’s to say really? I was twelve years old when Mama died, too angry at the world for taking her away from me to care one way or another what the preacher said. He would forevermore represent the day we buried my mother’s body in the ground, and it was a grudge I felt I’d hold til my last breath.

“We’ve still got each other, sugar bee,” Daddy said that night as he cuddled my sob-wracked body to sleep. His words comforted me, my child naivete convincing me that my daddy could never leave me like my mama did. Boy, how wrong I was.

It would be years before I ever felt the kind of eternal love Mama gave me from another person. Wesley Madden blew into my life like a hurricane, all roaring winds and crashing waves. Receiving his love was like swimming in the ocean for the first time—you wanted to open your eyes and see everything even when it burned like hell. I used to wonder if Mama sent Wesley to me because she knew I needed saving or if she recognized the good I could bring out in him. Our opposition became the perfect balance, our personalities clashing in ways that could only complement one another. But when you’ve only known suffering and loss, the glimmer of light shining through the cracks can petrify you. That’s a lesson I learned the hardest way possible.

Life comes full circle, huh? Fate must’ve missed the mark with me.