At 16, Ellie’s life was dictated by her father’s iron will. Shy and struggling with her weight and self-esteem, she lived in a small town where everyone judged everyone else. Her father, a stern man with little patience, saw her as a burden. One day, he announced a sh0cking decision: she was to marry Caleb, a rugged mountain man twice her age, a widower with two young children. Ellie’s world crumbled in an instant.
Tears streamed down Ellie’s face as she pleaded with her father.
“Why me?” she sobbed, but he remained impassive. ”
Caleb needs a wife, and you need a purpose,” he spat.
Ellie had never met Caleb, having only heard whispers about his lonely life in the mountains.
Her heart raced with fear; a marriage to a stranger and raising his children felt like a punishment she didn’t deserve.
The wedding was a blur.
Ellie, wearing a simple dress with trembling hands, listened to the murmurs of the townspeople.
Caleb, tall and weather-beaten, barely spoke. His dark eyes held a glimmer of kindness, but Ellie was too scared to notice.
His children, Mia, 8, and Ben, 5, clung to him, eyeing her suspiciously.
She felt like a stranger, thrown into a family that didn’t want her.
The mountain cabin was small, cold, and far from town.
Ellie struggled to adjust.
See more on the next page
Advertisement
