Distanced by parents, but connected by love.
When Poppy meets bad boy Aidan. She reluctantly falls for him. But his violent, secretive past causes trouble between the family.
Can their love conquer all or will they be strangers tomorrow.
I never thought I'd fall in love. I always wondered why someone would go to such extreme lengths for another human being. To risk heartbreak, betrayal, pain. All for a silly feeling of love.
This is not your average love story. Girl meets boy, yes. But easy and plain sailing absolutely not.
My name is Poppy-Marie. I'm sixteen years old. And my life is far from ordinary. I live with my father, his fiancé, and her four sons.
My mother left when I was eleven. No explanation just disappeared into the cold night as I watched from my bedroom window. A few months later a letter arrived, addressed to me, from my mother.
I kept the letter. Hidden away in a shoe box in the back of my wardrobe. Occasionally retrieving to torture myself.
My mother and father were childhood sweethearts. Five years together, happy and besotted with one another.
However, that all changed when I came along. The next eleven years, nothing but hatred filled the both of them.
Raised voices, glass smashing. Doors slamming. Until one day, silence.
But enough about my family and upbringing.
I was a good girl. Little miss perfect. Top grades in all my subjects. Cheer captain. Never a foot out of line.
"Poppy!" My dad called me from behind the bathroom door, I ignored him whilst applying the last bit of mascara to my lashes.
"Your ten minutes were over five minutes ago." his fist continued banging against the door.
I unlocked the bathroom door, rolling my eyes at my father. Seven people and one bathroom, meant time limits. Ten minutes each morning.
I pushed past the queue of groggy, disheveled step brothers cluttering the landing. Slamming my bedroom door behind me. My clothes laid neatly on the bed ready for school. Two week holiday had just finished, a new term beginning.
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After finished getting ready, I hurried to the kitchen to grab some breakfast before it was devoured. The smell of pancakes, waffles and meat wafted throughout the house. My eyes met the kitchen table, empty plates and cartons littered the small table.
"You snooze you lose." Casey teased whilst wiping away the excess food from his mouth. Casey was the youngest. And by far the most tedious.
Casey was eight. Cody who was thirteen, Callum who was the same age as me. Sixteen. And then there was Carter, he was eighteen. For four years we have all been a family. If you could call it that.
