Forever After All

by Catharina Maura

This is for the mothers that are worth fighting for. The ones that would do anything for their children. The ones that give meaning to the words Unconditional Love. You might love your daughters more than life itself, but never forget that we love you just as much.

“and you will belong to me. It’s not just your body that will be mine, Elena. It’s your every thought, your every dream. Your entire future is mine.”

“Neither you nor I will have any lovers. Don’t even fucking dream of cheating, Elena. Don’t even fucking look at another man, you hear me?”

I don’t know what I’ll do if I ever catch her straying, but I do know any man that touches her is going to be six foot under before he realizes what’s happening to him.

“Resist all you want, fight me, deny it… but in the end, it’ll be my name on your lips when I make you come—again.”

Husband I just gave you half my net worth by marrying you. Matter of fact, there’s a duplicate of my credit card in the bag too. Remember, Elena: I’ll always be the highest bidder. Shall I put up the privacy shield or do you think you can be a good girl and ‘refrain’?

“Things between us might have started unconventional, but that doesn’t change the fact that you are my wife, Elena. You are Mrs. Kennedy now. You’re mine.”

Elena doesn’t like taking orders, and I love giving them, even if it’s just to see her eyes flash like that.

“No one touches what’s mine, Elena. No one will even dare think of you, dream of you. You belong to me now, and I don’t share.”

“What is it you want, wife? If it’s within my power, I will give it to you.”

“You’re a Kennedy now, Elena. More importantly, you’re mine now.

“You’re mine, Elena. Your body is mine, but make no mistake, your every thought is mine too. Don’t you dare even dream about anyone else.”

“You’ve had me enthralled from the moment I ran into you again, all those months ago. I’ve fought my feelings for you for as long as I could, but it’s a losing battle.”

“You’re always the first one I see, no matter where I am, no matter how many people there are. Always, Alec.”

“Love… it corrupts,” she says. “Looking at your mother and mine makes me see it for what it is. It’s selfishness. It reminds me of religion, you know? I lost faith in God, when no matter what I did or how much I prayed, my mother wouldn’t wake up. Love is the same way. Blind faith, when logically you know better.”

That’s the risk of giving someone your heart—you have to trust that they won’t break it, that they won’t break you. And this world that we live in… it’s shallow, it’s opportunistic, and it’s vain.”

There’s no shame in loving someone with all your heart, Elena, but that love must be mutual. If you end up giving more of yourself than you get back, you’ll end up a shell of yourself, depleted, like I was. Had I walked out sooner, I might have had a different life. Who knows? I might have actually found true love.”

“Honey, a life without love isn’t a life worth living. Besides, you don’t get to choose whether or not you love someone. If only. How much easier would life be if we could just make that choice? Love… it doesn’t listen to reason.”

“I’ve spent my entire life loving people that didn’t love me back. I won’t do it again. I won’t. Not even for you.”

Maybe I’m foolish for leaving, but it’s all I want. I just want to come first to someone. For once, I just want to be the center of someone’s universe. I want to be all someone can see. And maybe it isn’t possible, maybe that doesn’t exist, but being with Alec, knowing that he used to love someone that way, and perhaps still does, knowing he can’t give me even a fraction of what he used to feel for her? It killed me slowly.”

“You always ask me about three good things that happened during my day, but baby, everything good in my life is you. The three best things to have happened in my entire life were meeting you, marrying you… and falling in love with you.”

“When I met you, I thought love was a fucking sham. I wanted no part of it. I didn’t think love could last.”