More Than Perfect

CHAPTER 1

I had noticed the strains on my parents marriage long before now. It came as the money came. And increased as the companies grew, more branches, more tension, more late nights, more business trips for dad, more lonely nights for mom.

I knew they still loved each other , it was evident in the way they spent the couple of days they had together. But a couple of days wasn't enough to build a marriage. Mom would have easily traveled with dad but they had this misplaced sense of childrearing, a child should have a stable and constant home, that child ergo me; Amberly Lynn Kingston. And so my mum stayed with me.

Well, I was turning 16 in two weeks, and I guess they were plain tired of struggling with their marriage so they decided we move together to the company headquarters and then maybe for any exceptional trips they could go together. And so we were moving , for the first time and I couldn't even be annoyed because it was for the marriage. I was simply resigned.

It wasn't like I had an awesome social life. I was withdrawn and generally pitied. Four years ago, on my 12th birthday party, my elder brother got missing. We noticed when it was time for photos and we couldn't find him , anywhere. It wasn't until my mom found his room in total disarray and with blood stains that we called the police and verified that he was taken from that room with evidence of struggle. We never did cut that birthday cake. He was 14 then.

I had loved to dance and wanted to be a cheerleader in high school but after that everything seemed bleak. It was hard to investigate because the whole town was invited and more, as we definitely had the resources. That was the last celebration we had. My parents waited by the phone for months. I think that's why my mom never wanted to move or travel . But she sincerely had to choose between the minute hope that my brother was alive, coming back and her marriage. Plus it wasn't like he couldn't ever locate us. The first result on the word 'KINGSTON' would turn up the KINGSTON ENTERPRISES with branch locations and my father's name Richard Kingston with family photos. Yeah, so this was a big deal for the whole family. Right now my mom and I were in the jet both quiet, sucked in by thoughts. I really wasn't so eager for this.