*Once upon a time, there was love.*
She looked at the words and sighed. There had been love in her life, once upon a time…a long time ago. As she thought about it, it wasn’t so long ago – it only seemed like years had passed in that time.

*Everything about it was wrong.*
She hated those words. Nothing was wrong. At first. In the beginning, everything was going right. It was making sense…the stars were closer, the skies clearer, the birds louder…everything was as it always was in the stories. They couldn’t get enough of each other. Each moment without him was pure agony…

*The prince was loud, irresponsible and hurtful.*
That wasn’t true. He barely raised his voice above a conversational tone. He had a job – a good-paying job. He was training to be in the army. And he had said he loved her…that he was afraid of getting too close because he might hurt her.

*The princess didn’t know what she was getting into.*
Oh no. She definitely knew. She just didn’t care. She thought she was old enough, mature enough for this kind of relationship. She thought he needed her. She wasn’t as stupid as those other girls who fell in love without really knowing what love was. She knew what love wasn’t…and what she felt toward him was different.

*Everything was black and white in her mind.*
That sentence was true, at least. They were either in love or they weren’t. She had real examples of what love wasn’t, so…they must be in love. And it should last forever.

*He said he’d had an eye on her since they were young.*
That part was true, too. He’d liked her since they were little, so he said, and he’d been trying to get her to like him since then.

*It was only to get her heart.*
Okay. She didn’t know that, exactly. But since when was she basing it off of her own life?

*She didn’t know this…and let herself love him.*
Nope. That wasn’t true, either. He had to fight to earn her heart. And it had been a struggle for him to keep it.

*If she could have looked into the future, would she have refused to listen to any of his intentions and waited for another, better man?*
Was there another, better man in her future? Or was he ‘the one’ and she was just refusing to believe it?

*She was too caught up in the butterflies, in the knowing there was someone special, that someone thought she was special, to think about the future.*
Ouch. That one hurt.

*It wasn’t enough. Her heart wanted more.*
She shouldn’t be writing this. It was too painful. She couldn’t…it was too soon, too real.

*So she dreamed about him, about the future they’d have, planned for it…made it real.*
How could she explain everything that had gone on in her heart for the past…ever?

*As she looks back, even now, the thoughts she hid deep in her heart were unknown to her – foreign and strange, as if from another mind.*
There. That’s how it went.

*Then, one day…everything fell apart.*
No. It wasn’t supposed to take this turn. She kept writing; the words spilled out of her pencil.

*She thought she knew him, thought they’d have a life together; just like in the fairy tales she secretly believed in. Little did she know that life was no fairy tale. There were no happy endings.*
Now tears were spilling out of her eyes. She dropped the pencil and rested her head on the paper. Her words grew blurry.

*But life does not have an ending.*
The words were whispered from deep within her.

*Fairy tales end. Romance novels and movies all end. Life does not end. Her story will not end.*
Hope rushed into her fingers, making them pick up the pencil and begin to write once more.

*Even as she lives with a broken heart, even as she cannot see beyond the pain, there is another. One who will love her. Perhaps it will be the prince she thought she loved – a little older, a little wiser, a little gentler.*
Her heart skipped a beat. Perhaps…?

*Or perhaps there will be a new prince in her life, one who is fit to carry her heart in his hand.*
She felt the shards inside mold back to place.

*Until that day, when she’ll know, she will live.*