"Hey Annabelle," I said, "what do you want for dinner after I come back."

"Anything you catch is fine," she said as she wiped the living room table, "your cooking is always good no matter what it is."

"Alright," I said smiling, "I'll surprise you, oh and can you pick up some seasoning at the market, just the basic stuff." I left our cabin, and headed towards the woods to start cutting trees.

"Hey Daren," I said "Good morning."

"Good morining Joseph," he said, "How's Anna holding up."

"She's doing fine, why do you ask."

"I was just wondering when you two would tie the knot," he said winking, "Now that your a man you got to start thinking about that stuff."

"Hey I just became 17 like a week ago, and Annabelle is more like my family."

"Oh so your telling me like you've already done it with her," he said nugging my shoulder, "wow, nice job on making moves."

"No I meant she's like my sister, and plus I like someone else," I said nervously.

"Oh really, well I won't pry, your axe should be in the main buildings storage room, oh and Emily's here," he said followed with a smirk.

"You don't want to pry? More like you already know." I headed to the main buildings storage room finding Emily waiting there for me. "Why are you here this early," I questioned.

"Waiting for you silly," she said with a cute grin.

"You know you don't have to meet me at work, we can meet in town on days when I don't work."

"Yeah, but my dad's your boss so I have access to here too, anyways your axe is right here," she pointed to the wall next to us and then leaned in giving me a kiss on the cheek, "make me proud."

"Sure, whatever."

————————————————————————

"Yeah I'll take a pouch of that, thank you," said Annabelle.

"So yeah that's what happene-," Annabelle was bumped into by Jessica almost dropping her bag, "Uh out of the way low lif-, Oh it's you Annabelle," Jessica said turning and glaring at her.

"You should watch where your going, you almost made me spill the seasoning I just bought."

"Sure honey," she said glancing to the side, "oh you know theres a juicy rumor going around about how Joseph's seeing another woman other than the one he's living with, yeah I heard she was the daughter of the boss he works for."

"Yeah right, this is the first I've heard of it," she said in disbelief.

"Trust me it's true, in fact you should ask him yourself, you do live together," she said with a smile, "I used to envy you, I thought that oh she must be so lucky to have a man at her side that will provide for her, but after this came out it just made me pity you. Just imagine when he marries her he'll just throw you out and forget about you, it's not like you have many redeeming qualities for the role of a wife," she said as she covered her grin with her hand, "maybe that's the reason he didn't chose you."

Annabelle stood in shock saying "N-No your wrong, I'm the only girl in his life, stop lying to me Jessica!"

"Ask him yourself he'll tell you the same story."

Without a word Annabelle ran home crying from fear, wanting to believe what she just heard as only fabrications to get at her.

————————————————————————

"I'm home," I said as I opened the door, "Annabelle are you home?"

"Yes I am," she said appearing out of thin air.

"Okay, I'll start dinner, did you get the seasoning?"

"Yes," she said handing it to me, "Also are you seeing someone?"

"Oh, so you know," I said nervously chuckling.

"I want you to be truthful with me!" She interrupted "Okay, don't leave anything out."

"What brought this on," I said trying to calm her down.

Annabelle hung her head down, "J-Just tell me," and began to cry.

"Look, we can talk about this as we eat," I said hugging her, "and don't cry, I hate to see my family sad." I stopped hugging her and moved to the kitchen. "I caught a rabbit today so I'm sure it will taste good," I grabbed the dead rabbit and set it down on the cutting board.

"Family?" Annabelle muttered, "talk while we eat? You always avoid the direct answers with me." Annabelle went to grabbed the knife she hid in a different room. "I can't bare the thought of losing you to someone else and now I feel like your going to lie."

"Annabelle have you seen the knife?" I said loudly, "I can't find it in the kitchen."

"Yeah I know where it is," She said happily.

"Great can I hav-," As I turned around Annabelle ran up to me, plugging a knife into my stomach, and through all the pain and shock as I faded from consciousness all I could say was, "Why?"