𝐎 𝐁 𝐉 𝐄 𝐂 𝐓 𝐈 𝐎 𝐍 (18+)

13

The Confessions Of Charlotte Lewis

♡♡♡♡

When I turned six my mother entered me in my first pageant. Tanning, big voluminous curls, red lipstick I was way too young to wear, and revealing outfits no mother should ever approve of. I was like her little doll. I smiled when she wanted me to, took a bow when she wanted me to, and talked when I was spoken to.

I was on a strict diet and that carried on to my preteen years. The school was constantly calling home, worried about my eating habits but my mother always brushed them off. 'She's just a picky eater,' she'd laugh and assure I was getting enough to eat at home.

I'd watch my dad eat steak and potatoes washing it down with an ice-cold coke while my mother and I nibbled on salads that barely had any dressing. I'd sneak food I shouldn't have whenever I went to visit friends but the effort never went unnoticed.

You couldn't fit in a size small ball gown if you loved bread as much as I did.

When I turned sixteen, my father introduced me to the sons of prominent billionaires. If I was going to make it in this world I had to be taken care of and nobody would be able to take care of me better than a man with a budding drinking problem and a secretary he spent a little too much time with.

I went on the dates to get him off my back but none of them interested me, not in the way Issac Hill did. I used to watch him during class, sketching in one of his many notebooks. The teacher was always confiscating them but he'd just come back with another, proudly showing his best friend Leila what he'd just created.

She'd laugh at him because apparently he was shit at drawing and he'd just wave a hand to brush her off. After a while, he gave up the shading for a camera and would come into class snapping pictures of anything in his eye frame. Most of the time it was Leila, it was always Leila.

We'd leave school for the day and I'd see them walking together to the garden. He'd be snapping pictures of her the whole walk there, her covering her face and yelling about how annoying his picture taking was. It was obvious that she loved it—I mean honestly who wouldn't?

To have a man so enamored with you he couldn't help but capture you at your prettiest. I wanted to know what that felt like, wanted to know what Issac would see when he looked at me through the lens of his camera. It was wishful thinking, no matter how bad I longed for it Issac's heart would always belong to Leila Wright.

I was twenty-two years old when my father came to me and told me to break up with my current boyfriend Jason Hayes. I wasn't too distraught considering he preferred cocaine to spending time with his girlfriend but still, I wondered where the sudden change of heart came from.

"What do you think about Issac Hill?" he asked in a tone that implied it wouldn't matter either way. I hadn't heard the name in years and I was unable to stop the smile that formed on my face. When it came to my father and micromanaging, he'd take home awards. If he wanted me to be with Issac Hill, there was no doubt—I'd be with Issac Hill. The only obstacle to his usual full-proof plan was the love of his life.

Leila.

My father assured me that she was being taken care of and all I had to do was have patience. It was one of the only times when I appreciated his efforts in controlling my love life. I thought maybe I'd have a chance at a marriage filled with love and someone kind compared to the men he'd usually have lined up for me.

When I met Issac again it was at a bar during one of his father's company parties. He seemed sad, his hair was a little disheveled with bags under his eyes. I was positive he had been crying before he got there but I never brought it up. No sense in bringing whatever was ailing him back to the surface.