On her way to the village shop, Emily suddenly recognised the mother of her first true love in the elderly woman walking towards her. To her surprise, the woman recognised her too and couldnt hold back her tears.
For the first time in a decade, Emily found herself driving down the lane where shed grown up, in a quiet village in the Cotswolds. Though she now sat behind the wheel of an expensive car, she felt anything but secure returning herea flood of uneasy childhood memories washed over her. Long ago, shed sworn never to set foot in this place again, yet something inexplicable pulled her back to the village where she was born and raised.
Emily had been raised by her mother, Margaret, aloneher father had passed before she turned three. She knew him only from photographs. The two lived modestly: Margaret worked as a local vet but had little time for a garden of her own and earned barely enough to get by.
“Dont you fret, my love,” Margaret would often say. “As long as youre happy and healthy, the rest will sort itself out.”
Emily grew into a striking young woman, admired by many suitorsthough she had no dowry to speak of. At a village fête, she met a boy named William from a nearby market town. For Emily, it was her first real love, which troubled her mother. William came from wealth, and Margaret feared hed cast her daughter aside once the infatuation faded. Emily reassured hershe was certain William was sincere, that money meant little to him. After six months of walks and stolen moments, he arrived with his parents to ask for her hand. But the moment his mother saw their humble cottage, she paled. She said nothing, yet unease settled in Emilys heart.
The wedding was set for the first Saturday in October. That morning, Emily felt strangely restless, though she couldnt say why. Her friends helped pin up her hair and adjust her wedding dressbut William never appeared. Her godfather (a close family friend) drove off to see what had happened, though Emily already sensed there would be no wedding.
“Whatever you say, I wont let my son ruin his life,” Williams mother told the godfather flatly.
Emily wept until dawn. And William, under his parents pressure, left her without another word. Her great love snuffed out like a candle flame.
The next day, Emily packed her old travel bag and took the first coach to the city. There, she found workfirst as a waitress, then as a kitchen assistant. When the chance came to go abroad and earn better wages, she barely hesitated. While she was away, word reached her from relatives back home that her mother, Margaret, had passed. But there was no turning backEmily was already on the plane.
Years slipped by. She worked hard, first for meagre pay, then for something better, saving what she could. Yet the wound of that first love never truly healed: she never started a family of her own, and resentment still coiled in her heart towards William and his parents.
When Emily returned to the village after all this time, people didnt recognise her at first. The once-shy, sweet girl had become an elegant woman, smartly dressed but with the same warm smile. Only her eyes held something sadeven when she laughed.
One day, heading to the village shop, Emily froze when she realised the frail woman approaching her was none other than Williams mother. The old lady looked up, recognised her, and burst into tears.
“Emily is it really you? Please forgive me, child. I ruined your lifeand my sons. I only wanted the ‘better match’ for him, and I broke him instead. Since he lost you, hes never loved properly again. He drowned himself in drink. Thats my burden to bear.”
Emily pitied her. The woman was gaunt, worn thin by regret. And in that moment, the bitterness Emily had carried for years dissolvedshe saw that those whod broken her heart had paid dearly too, forfeiting their own happiness.
