**Staring Into the Void**
Tom and Emily got married when they were just 19. They couldnt live or breathe without each otherit was that kind of wild, all-consuming love. So their parents quickly made it official, just to keep things proper.
The wedding was lavish, unforgettable. All the usual bits were therea little bride-and-groom ornament on the car bonnet, flowers everywhere, fireworks, a proper reception hall, everyone shouting, “Kiss the bride!” Emilys parents didnt chip in financiallythey barely had enough for food and, well, the pub. Toms mum, Margaret Elizabeththough she insisted on being called Maggiecovered everything.
Maggie had tried to warn Tom against marrying a girl whose parents were always half-cut at the pub. But what could she do? He swore Emily wasnt like them, that their love would outweigh any bad blood. Maggie just sighed and said, “The apple doesnt fall far from the tree, love. Dont say I didnt warn you.”
For a while, life was golden. They were young, madly in love, the world at their feet. Maggie and her husband even gifted them a flat”Live happily, kids!”
Then, five years in, Emily started vanishing for hours. When she came back, Tom could smell the drink on her. At first, she brushed him off, then finally spat it outshe never really loved him. Just a silly schoolgirl crush. Now shed found *the one*some married bloke with three kids of his ownand she was leaving.
Tom was gutted. Meanwhile, Emily ran off to some backwater village with her new man, leaving their two girls, Sophie and Lily, behind. Maggie, sharp as a tack, took them in without hesitation.
Tom, lost without Emily, fell in with some dodgy religious group on a mates advice. Before he knew it, theyd set him up with a widow, Carol, and her two boys. Soon, he was too busy playing stepdad to see his own daughters again. Every time he mentioned them, Carol would snap, “Theyve got a mother, havent they? Focus on *our* family.”
Seven years later, Emily turned up on Maggies doorstep with a four-year-old girl in tow. “This is Mia,” she mumbled. “Can we stay?”
Maggie eyed her. “Life roughed you up, eh? He chuck you out?”
“I left,” Emily admitted. “He hits me. Drinks nonstop.”
Maggie scoffed. “You picked him. Why not go to your parents?”
Emily hesitated. “I missed the girls.”
“Convenient,” Maggie muttered.
When Sophie and Lily came home, they barely recognised her. No hugs, no tearsjust cold resentment.
Of course, Maggie let them stay. But a month later, Emily vanished againback to her “true love.” Mia stayed behind. Now Maggie had three girls to raise.
Time rolled on. Maggie passed, then her husband. Sophie married, but no kids came. Lily stayed single, never bothered with love. Mia, at 17, had a baby with some no-name bloke and ran off to her mums village.
Emilys man eventually got sick and was taken back to the city by his grown daughters, who blamed her for his ruin. The village gossips called her a disgracea drunk, a mess.
As for Tom? He finally escaped Carol and that cult, left with nothing but his mums old flat and three cats for company.
Happiness had knocked once. They just didnt hear it.
