Status: Prologue

Erin Lyzel had grown up without parents. It was a fact that had haunted her since she was little and colored her worldview in a great many ways. Her father had died in a car crash when she was two, and then when she was five she lost her mother to lung cancer. With both of her parents gone, Erin had been raised by her grandparents on her mother’s side and taught to cherish what she already had in life. 

Being that her grandparents had both grown up during the Great Depression they were very particular about making sure that their beloved granddaughter made the most out of everything she had. She was taught the value of hard work and conservation as well as enjoyment of the simple things in life like family and a job well done.

These lessons had served her well for many years until her grandparents too finally passed when she was twenty three. It was a devastating loss, but one she had been preparing for for years prior. Erin knew that her folks were old and that they wouldn’t be around forever, but even so it hurt her when they finally passed. First her grandfather at ninety two, then her grandmother at ninety only four months later. They’d lived full, happy lives, she rationalized. They were kind and helpful, and had lived long enough to see their great grandson Kyle. 

Erin worked hard to make a living for her and her son. She worked two jobs for the majority of her young adult years: a farmhand at a local cattle ranch in the mornings and a gas station attendant overnight. She powered through the financial struggle of raising a child without a college degree until eventually she’d landed a full time position as a manager at a successful gardening business that catered to the middle class townsfolk.

Erin and Kyle were a happy duo and remained close even throughout Kyle’s foray into high school, but the older he became, the more he realized that his mother was lonely. At seventeen years old he could see that his mom was growing anxious about him leaving the nest and moving away and sat her down to encourage her to date. Kyle himself was slim and attractive, with icy blonde hair that drove the girls wild. Being the ladies man that he was, he was able to convince his mom to give it a go with his help.

(1)

In the beginning she was hesitant. She didn’t think that anyone would want a fat, frumpy mom woman who already had a grown son, and feared that she would end up al alone again. It was true, Kyle thought. Being raised to eat everything on her plate was fine when there was little to go around, but her eating habits had filled her out a good deal, inadvertently exaggerating her age slightly. She was still pretty, he would assure, even against her claims of lacking any curves or sex appeal. The blonde, midwestern mom did have a sort of dowdiness to her with her boxy figure and muscular frame coated in thick working-woman fat, but Kyle assured her that there was indeed someone out there for her.

(2)

After only a few months of online dating and a few bad dates, Erin stumbled onto a man named Gideon Ashford. He was incredibly charming right from the get-go, delighted by Erin’s can-do attitude and capability when it came to getting things done. He spent time with Kyle beginning at a sort of respectful distance that rapidly evolved into playing video games together and chatting about their experiences in high school.

Kyle himself was surprised at how well things were going and just how much he didn’t hate his mom’s new boyfriend. He’d expected to have at least some reservations, but nothing big enough to make him worry ever surfaced.
Only a year and two months later, Erin Lyzel became Erin Ashford, blushing bride and happiest woman in the world. She was given away by her son in a small, but beautiful ceremony while wearing the ring that her long-deceased mother had left for her before she died.

(3)

It was then that a stunning, startling revelation was made.

Gideon Ashford, it turned out, was not just any old bachelor. After the wedding, he sat Erin and Kyle down to confess that he had been keeping a secret from them. But before the rage could well up in Kyle or the terror could overtake Erin, the newly married Mr. Ashford revealed that the apartment he had been taking Erin over to was merely a small property he owned in town when he wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle if work and sociality.

In fact, that property was one of seven different homes Gideon owned in several cities around the world including Los Angeles, New York, Hong Kong, New Delhi, London, Versailles, and Sydney. It turned out that Gideon was obscenely and independently wealthy, having grown up in affluent circles all his life. As such, he’d turned to online dating in order to find the sort of salt-of-the-earth, meat and potatoes kind of woman who would love him for more than just his money. 

Now that he was married, he continued, he felt safe and comfortable enough with Erin to invite them to his permanent residence in Glendale California, and to offer the two a chance to live there with him in luxury. Kyle immediately jumped at the chance, urging his mother to do it. Erin however was more skeptical and hesitant to leave her entire life behind. Instead, she agreed to a sort of trial run in which they would stay there for a month and see how they felt afterward. If either of them felt that that sort of lifestyle was not for them, he would simply buy a small home in their own home town and they could settle in there, free of financial obligation.

Their eyes went wide the moment they stepped onto the property, stunned by the magnificent beauty of Gideon’s mansion, and filled with wonder about what their new, surprise family life was going to be like.

“Remember though,” Erin said, gazing breathlessly at the gorgeous marble columns of the mansion and taking in the plant-sweetened fragrance in the air. “This is…just a trial run. We don’t know if this is for us yet.”
Gideon smiled and squeezed his new wife’s hand warmly.

“Trust me.” He said. “One day you won’t even remember how you ever lived any other way.”