Cinderella Ice

At the age of nineteen, Jessie eloped with Walt, a ranch hand she had met on the ranch of her mother's best friends, the Driscolls, in Montana. It took Jessie only three months into her marriage to learn the reason Walt had responded to her advances. Alone with her, his true nature surfaced. Right to her face, he told Jessie the real reason he'd married her, and how sick he was of her cloying, adolescent affection. Hurt and disillusioned, Jessie's rose-colored glasses shattered. But reality wasn't finished with her. She woke in the morning to find Walt missing. On his side of the bed, a two-sentence note. "I'm gone. Don't look for me." All the same, for two years she waited, with never a word, until one afternoon, the Driscolls brought her authenticated documents, proving that when he married her, Walt had a wife and two children under another name. Indoctrinated since childhood in fairytales with happy endings, her spirit, her view of life and the pursuit of happiness, severely scarred, especially regarding the story of Cinderella and Prince Charming. She swore off any future relationships, and turned her nose up at the need for a Prince Charming. Cinderella Ice. Like the Snow Queen. Jessie made up her mind. Yes, that's what I'll be from this day forth - Cinderella Ice.