Michelle frowned. “I’m really sorry to hear that. I come from a disconnected family, too, so I know how hard that can be.”

“Yeah, it’s hard. But at least I have my little girl. She’s the only family I truly need.”

“She’s beautiful. Truly your twin. Seeing how Oliver and her connected was so touching. Gosh, it’s good to see him like that. Smiling.”

“Isn’t it? I’ll be honest, it took a bit of time before he shared his smiles with me.”

“Why do I get the idea that you might be responsible for some of those smiles?” she asked, making cool chills race across my arms. “You have a great spirit, I can tell. I’m good at reading people.”

“I wish my own mother felt that way about me,” I muttered. It hadn’t even been eight hours since we’d met, and Michelle had given me more compliments than my mother ever had. “I’m actually very envious of watching you and Richard with Oliver. My parents and I are nothing like that.”

“I know that feeling well. I wasn’t close with my parents, either,” Michelle said, sipping her glass of wine. “Well, at first I was, but after I brought Richard around for them to meet, they had very strong views against it because he didn’t really come from money. I grew up with wealth like no other. My father and mother were both very successful lawyers. Richard’s family was the complete opposite, living on food stamps. My parents hated the fact that I was dating someone lesser than me.”

“I’m so sorry. I can only imagine how hard that would be. To be torn between two worlds.”

“Yes, it was. I was only sixteen when I met Richard, and I was smitten right away. My father told me he’d disown me if I kept seeing him, and my mother told me I’d be alone forever, because she had no doubt that Richard would never be able to provide for me. They told me to make a choice, Richard or my family.”

“They wanted you to decide that at age sixteen?”

“Yup. Either I walk away from Richard, or I walk away from them.”

“What did Richard say about it?”

She smiled a sad grin and shook her head as the memories came flying back to her. “Sweet Richard said, ‘Don’t you dare walk away from your family.’” A few tears danced down her cheeks as she wiped them away and locked her eyes with mine. “Which is exactly why I stayed with him.”

“He was your family.”

“My heart family. The only family that truly matters. Not for a second did he tell me to choose him. He sacrificed his own happiness in order to protect mine. If that’s not a man you hold on to, I don’t know what is. That was when I learned that true love is unconditional. It doesn’t set guidelines for how you have to act in order to be loved. His mother and father took me into their home without question. They raised me; even though they already didn’t have much, they made enough space for me to exist within their home. When I think of my parents, I think of them.”

“I felt crushed when my family turned on me. I still do, honestly.”

“Yes, and that doesn’t really go away—not fully. But you now have a beautiful daughter that you can begin again with. You get to start from the ground up, building a family set with values that serve you. From new traditions, to new love stories—you can break generational curses based on how you love one another.”

Generational curses were something I’d thought about for a long time in my life. I never knew my grandparents, because Mama had had a falling out with her parents, and Dad never knew his. Now I felt as if I was repeating that same pattern of disconnect, because Reese didn’t know her grandparents, either.

If I had it my way, my children’s children would know me, and know of my love. They would never feel a disconnect from love, because it would surround their souls. One day, that family curse set against the Taylors would be broken. I was more determined than ever to make that true.

“Sometimes family isn’t what we were born into—it’s what we choose,” Michelle explained.

Those words were so important to me. Sure, perhaps I wouldn’t have the connection to my own parents that I’d craved, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t get to create something even more powerful down the line.

“How old is your daughter again?” she asked.

“Almost six, and sassy as ever. She and Oliver bicker like no other, but they have a connection that they can’t deny.”

Michelle smiled brightly. “I always thought Alex would be the family man. Oliver looked so far away from settling down. Alex always seemed to connect so well with kids.” Her smile slowly faded away as she stared off in the distance, thinking about Alex.