Michael Taylor was sure- he was in love with Lydia Saunders, even if she was engaged to someone else. He had been for years and no one else came close. Not until that kiss happened.
Suddenly, Lyanna Saunders- the woman he vowed to hate forever- was...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Being my only child, Michael is the light of my life.
Actually, scrap that. Being my only biological son, he is one of the many lights of my life. Having been close to the Saunders family since before any of the children were born, and raising Michael's half-sister, Nina, for a few years during her childhood, I consider myself a mother-figure to more than just the one that came from my womb. I feel an incredible bond to them all that I simply adore each and every one. My heart, however, retains a special place for Lyanna Saunders.
She was a sensitive child, more so than anyone else I've ever come across. She observed people and as such, felt their happiness and their sadness almost as much, if not more, than the subjects themselves. Her bond with her father, however, was the most precious thing in the world. She really was a Daddy's Girl, following him around like a shadow. I remember the day she was born and how proud John was that he had a daughter. He doted on Lyanna, taking her with him even to work. By the time she was two, she had a pink hard hat with her initials embossed on the front. John and Lyanna were a package deal and this, naturally, lead to some resentment when Lydia came along and was old enough to realise that indeed, some parents do have favourites.
As much ass I hate to say it, I never took to Lydia. She was spoilt rotten by her mother and her grandparents and had an air of entitlement that came across as very unfortunate. Rude and ugly to the core, she looked down her nose at others, including her older sister. It was upsetting, especially when you saw how Lyanna treasured her younger sister. As the girls aged- and with Lyra's arrival- their relationship deteriorated until it became unrecognisable. Yes, they were sisters, however, they were complete strangers at the same time.
It came to a head during their teenage years. Lydia grew impossibly competitive and whatever Lyanna had, she wanted. If Lyanna took up a sport, Lydia insisted on taking up the exact sport and wasted all her energy on trying to beat her sister.
Boys were a huge problem, too, not that John and Mimi ever knew. By the time Lyanna was fifteen, I had become her confidante. As her God-mother, I felt it was my duty to be her shoulder to cry on, her ear to listen when she needed to talk. I knew all about how Lydia had purposely gone after all of Lyanna's boyfriends and how the eldest of the Saunders siblings couldn't wait to flee to university so that she could finally have breathing space from Lydia. I can still see the smile on her face the day she left at eighteen.
She met a boy there. His name was Christopher but, Lyanna giggled when she told me, he preferred the name Kit. He was handsome, she said. He made her laugh. He bought her flowers on random Thursdays simply because he saw them and thought of her. I met him on the few occasions that I would go and visit her and I must say, it was a joy to see her so happy. She thought it would last forever, and I believed it too. Yes, they might have been young but I've never seen anyone that in love before. It was pure.
You can imagine my confusion, then, when I learnt that they had broken up. I'd lost contact with Lyanna during her final year of studies, putting it down to the fact that she was busy concentrating on her finals. It was only as she graduated that I knew just how much had changed.
