VAPOR

PROLOGUE - Broken Chandelier

I didn't exactly like the idea of going across the world to be an exchange student, because why would anyone ever want to leave the safe place called home? My siblings kept nagging about how stupid and childish I was for being scared of leaving home, after all I was turning nineteen in less than six months. But the thought of leaving the country still freaked me out.

Now you might wonder why I was leaving if I didn't want to and the thing is that I didn't have a choice, we will get to that very soon.

My father had his own business and as his daughter he wanted me to take over the family business once he got too old to handle it all. Which I of course didn't want to. In my soon nineteen years I had never understood what my fathers business was all about, but a thing that I understood was that he got a lot of money out of it.

It had something to do with buildings and architects but he wasn't an architect himself. He had started his business in the late 90's and since then he'd won more prices than I could count on two hands, which probably was supposed to make me proud. It didn't.

Guess why? If you guessed that my father is a total jerk, you guessed right.

You might wonder why I would ever call my father a jerk but don't worry I'll explain it all to you, right now.

Back in 2005 my father decided to get a divorce, which I found pretty weird as things had been fine until he put the divorce papers on the kitchen table that foggy autumn morning. My parents had been married for ten years and

My father decided to get a divorce back in 2005 and at that time my mother was totally broke. I never found out why my father wanted a divorce after ten years of marriage but found myself furious as he forced my mother to leave the house without a single dollar in her wallet. He'd convinced her to become a housewife years before as he found it ridiculous that they both should work when he was filthy rich.

Mom left town and moved in with her brother for the next six months, due to the little money she had I couldn't come with. For a good amount of time she tried to get a job, but it was impossible when George Rivers once had been her husband. He talked badly about her everywhere he went and after she'd spent six months trying to find a work and a home she moved to New York in hopes that she could move in with her best friend Cornelia.

It disgusted me that the idea of giving her some money and a roof to sleep under didn't even cross his mind. How could he be so selfish and cold-hearted after then years of marriage?

Just a year after my parents divorce my father got married again, and god I don't think that I've ever despised someone as much as I despise that woman.

Francesca McGrey was a fierce woman in her late thirties, she was strong and independent but not in a good way. She was so annoying that I sometimes felt tempted to cut her precious hair off in her sleep and glue a mustache to her pretty face.

  Francesca had long blonde hair that reached down to her waist, (which might be a little too long for someone in her age) brown big eyes and a shiny white smile. She bleached her teeth at least once a week. No kidding.

My wicked step-mother was slim, tall and everything my father seemed to want all out of a sudden. I didn't understand how he'd fallen for her but after months living with two people that you hate I realized that they were exactly the same. They were the kind of rich people that looked down at people as if they were less worth than themselves, they were always right and could never wrong. Because they were simply perfect. At least that's what they thought.