Everything comes with a price

Laila let out a deep sigh as she let out the words, "Boy, what a crazy day it had been." After staring at the starlit sky for the longest time, Laila headed inside and started staring at the gold chained ring as she sat on the corner of her bed. The words Jake said started rushing through her mind along with the memories of all the times before where she had heard those words. In her mind she was going back and forth on what to do and what decision to make on a choice she was offered only hours before. Never in her wildest dreams did she think this morning that this was where her day would end.

- 17 hours ago -

It was a regular sunny day in the coastal country Laila lived. On this early morning she was leaning against the balcony of the three story mansion she lived in. She was still wearing her soft pink, silk nightgown and as she looked over her large front yard, she let out a soft sigh before glancing further into the distance. Her eyes landed on the calm waters and the characterizing stained glass water tower of this town. With the rays of the sun landing on her face and dancing around in her hazel-green eyes while bringing out the warm tones in her long dark hair, she got lost in her thoughts. And as the soft ocean breeze ruffled the thin fabric of her nightgown, Laila started overthinking some of her life's decisions. This wasn't a spur of the moment thought but one that came to her because of something that she never imagined would happen to her after so many years of marriage.

As her eyes glazed over from the daze she was in, her thoughts brought her back to her teens. Back to when she was dreaming of one day leading a life like this. A life of glamour and riches. One she always thought was a life free of worries and problems. But now that her dream had turned into a reality and she had lived that long desired lifestyle, only now did she see that it wasn't all that she had imagined it to be. What she recalled was not just what she had gained from turning her dream into reality, she also recalled what she had accepted over the years, what she had given up on and what she had went through to get to where she was now. Because like all things in life, everything comes with a price. So did leading a life of luxury. And as she was looking at the cracks in her seemingly perfectly life, she was wondering if this was a price she was still willing to pay.

She had never wondered about her sacrifices for the life she was living but today was different. After last night everything seemed different. Everything she once knew to be true, was now something she was second guessing and at the moment she was feeling like there was something very important was missing in her very own fairy tale. Something she couldn't and shouldn't do without.

While the voices inside her head were battling out what was more important and if she wasn't overreacting, all she could do was wait till the silence returned. Ever since last night all sirens seemed to have gone off inside her mind and she hadn't found a moment of peace since then. One question after another entered her mind and left after taunting her, only to reappear after waiting for the last question in the sequence to run through her mind.

"Is this really the life you wanted?"

"Can you really accept this to keep your life of luxury?"

"Are you really happy? Happy enough to close your eyes for the problems that come with it?"

"Are you sure you can drown out the whispers?"

Laila felt a surge of panic come over her and quickly shook her head as she put her hands over her ears. She pressed her hands firmly against her ears, as if that could stop her from hearing the voices that were clearly telling her that something was wrong. The reason she was so desperately hiding from these voices, the reason Laila wanted to find the answers to the questions that filled her mind but at the same time wanted to be blind for them, was because she knew what was at stake. She knew what she would lose if that restless feeling inside of her got the winning hand. Not just in the material sense but also the life with the person she had loved for so many years.

You see, the fancy cars in the garage, the beautiful dresses in her closet and even the large house she was standing in, none of it were really hers. She had obtained none of these things herself. In fact, she had left everything she knew and owned behind when she married her husband. Including a lot of her friends... Very close and dear friends. Some she lost because they couldn't accept her husband, some because they couldn't accept the change in her and some she had pushed away herself by her obsession to fit in with her husband's group of friends. Only now could she see the truth in their words. Only now that her life was on the verge of crumbling underneath her feet did she realize their importance and only now could she see the value in the things she had before becoming someone's wife.

Laila let out another sigh as she thought about this and she got lost in her thoughts once more. Thinking about how she had ended up in her current predicament. She had been with her husband for a very long time and she owed everything they had to him and his good job at his family's company. He had been her childhood sweetheart and though they had a rocky start, after a few times of breaking up and getting back together again, they found stability in their early twenties. The reason for this was her getting pregnant with their first child. Once the two of them and their families found out that she was pregnant, especially his family, it didn't take long before they were married. After a whirlwind of lectures and hurried fittings, she found herself at the alter and shortly after she was standing at city hall with a marriage license in her hand.