23
" In the shadows, a glass slipper shimmered on her foot. She bent to pick it up.
Strange, that everything should disappear except her glass slipper.
She hugged it to her chest. Before this night, she hadn't thought magic would ever touch her life. None of this would have been possible without her fairy godmother.
She gazed at the stars twinkling above her. Somehow, she knew her godmother was listening. "Thank you so much... for everything."
Carefully, she tucked her glass slipper into her pocket. At least she would have it to remind her of what a beautiful night it had been.
Her fairy godmother's spell had been broken. Tomorrow, everything would go back to the way it was before. Her stepmother would go back to ordering her around the chateau, her stepsisters, Anastasia and Drizella, to tormenting her over every one of their needs, but she'd caught a glimpse of happiness, something she hadn't felt in many years.
Her eyes had opened to the possibility of leaving home, of dreaming dreams that might actually come true. But she wasn't brave enough to chase them- not yet. Not so soon, anyway, after such a magnificent night.
What she didn't realize was- she might not have a choice. "
― Elizabeth Lim , So This is Love (Twisted Tales)
27
" My mother used to grow roses in her garden. We'd pick them together every morning."
She fell silent, remembering how she'd carried on the tradition with her papa after her mother died. One by one they'd cut the flowers, each still so fresh that dew glistened on its petals and trickled down her trembling fingers.
"Eight pink roses, seven white ones, and three sprigs of myrtle," she murmured, pointing at the pink and white roses in the line of bushes.
"What is that?"
"It's what I would always bring Mama- the same arrangement my father presented to her when he'd asked her to marry him."
The story of their courtship had been her favorite, one Papa had told her over and over. She'd never tired of it, never stopped asking him to tell it to her.
Before her mother had died, he'd always ended the story with a smile, saying, "Your mother is my true love."
Once she was gone, his expression became solemn, shadows sinking into the lines of his brow, his teeth clenched tight to keep from grimacing. Then he would say, "Your mother was my true love."
So Cinderella had learned how one word could change everything. And she had stopped asking her father for the story. "
― Elizabeth Lim , So This is Love (Twisted Tales)
28
" I have important things to tell you, but who can concentrate with all that racket?"
That "racket" turned out to be because of flowers, hundreds of them, arriving by the cartful. Roses, orchids, lilies, daffodils, irises, and a dozen other varieties that she could not name. Heavy porcelain vases were mounted all around the grand ballroom and the royal gardens, displaying the arrangements in all their grandeur. But one arrangement stood out from the rest.
From the duchess's window, Cinderella watched the gardeners erect a trellis studded with roses. When the palace staff wheeled out a barrow of flowers, white pearlescent roses intertwined with pink ones as flushed as the height of sunrise, she nearly gasped.
Her parents' favorite flowers. White and pink roses, with a touch of myrtle.
Charles had been listening. "
― Elizabeth Lim , So This is Love (Twisted Tales)
29
" The story of Cinderella and her glass slipper had spread far and wide, and many wished to hear it from her own lips. But as she and the prince traveled the far corners of the world, recounting how they'd met and come to fall in love, they emphasized that their story didn't end with the glass slipper being found and returned to Cinderella. No, their fairy tale continued on, with each day together and later with their children.
As for the glass slippers, Cinderella and Charles kept them displayed in the garden for all to see- as a reminder that magic, as wonderful as it could be, was never the key to making one's dreams come true or making one happy. After all, spells were fragile, hopes could shatter, and dreams could stay dreams, never given a chance to take wing.
If one looked very carefully, sewn onto the cushion upon which the slippers stood was the word for what Cinderella and the prince found to be even greater than magic, than dreams, than happily ever afters, than even hope-
It was love. "
― Elizabeth Lim , So This is Love (Twisted Tales)