Prologue

PROLOGUE

“ R egan, Kellen, both of you come into the living room, please,” Regan’s mother said from the bottom of the stairs.

She and her brother were upstairs doing their homework like they always did after school.

The good girl, she’d always been told. That was what she was trying to be at sixteen.

Most of her friends were playing sports and hanging out after school. Not her.

Thankfully she’d always been confident enough in her life to do her own thing.

“What do you think Mom wants?” Kellen asked when he came out of his room.

“No clue,” she said. Her brother was four years younger than her. If he had his way, her brother would always be with his friends.

But there were rules in their house and they followed them.

“Guess we’ll find out,” Kellen said. “Maybe it’s a family vacation.”

“Could be,” she said. Her parents often called these little family meetings to talk about a trip or a party. Family coming to visit.

“Can’t you say more than two words?” Kellen asked, bumping into her going down the stairs.

She sighed. She heard that a lot too.

She talked plenty in her mind. But she listened more. She observed.

She found that you learned more that way.

“I’ll say more than two when I’ve got something to say,” she said. “Just like that sentence was more.”

“Brat,” Kellen said.

Considering most younger brothers were pains in her eyes, she had to say they got along well.

They got to the living room, her father sitting in his recliner still in his suit and tie from work.

Her mother walked in and sat in the other recliner next to her father’s. Her parents always sat like that, like a couple.

She and Kellen sat on the couch.

“Your father and I are getting divorced,” her mother said calmly as if she was announcing there would be rice with dinner.

Regan just stared at the words her mother said. Kellen started to laugh. “Yeah, right,” he said. “What is going on?”

“Your mother is correct,” her father said. “We’ve been talking about it for months and it’s time to separate. I’ll be moving out this weekend. I’ve got an apartment for now. We just wanted to tell you two together.”

Her eyes shifted back and forth and she almost wondered if there was a camera hidden somewhere.

Kellen turned and looked at her. “Say something.”

“This is really happening?” she asked.

“Yes,” her mother said, nodding her head.

“Why?” she asked.

“Why what?” her father asked.

“Why are you divorcing when I don’t even know the last time you two fought?” she said.

“Never,” Kellen said. “That’s when you have fought. I’ve never seen you fight. How can you be getting a divorce if you don’t even fight? Last month you were laughing and giggling in the kitchen when I walked in and it was gross. I told you it was gross when you kissed Mom.”

Regan was thinking the same thing.

This wasn’t just coming out of left field; it was a whole different ballpark in another state.

“Kellen is right,” she said. “What happened? Don’t you think we should know?”

Her parents looked at each other. Her mother said, “It’s time. I don’t think we love each other anymore.”

“You don’t think ?” she asked. This was just too confusing to her.

“Regan,” her mother said. “Your father and I have made up our minds. It’s between us. I know you’re surprised.”

“That’s the understatement of the year,” she said.

Kellen was starting to cry next to her. She felt the need to shed some tears too but was going to try to be strong for him.

Right now, she just wanted to understand.

“For now, your mother will live in the house with you. She’s home more and has more traditional hours. None of those things will change. My apartment is a mile away. I’ll still be at all your school functions and events like always.”

“You’re just not going to be living here?” she asked. “Like you’ll be friends instead? You want us to believe that you’ve been married almost twenty years and now are just going to part ways with no issues?”

“That is exactly right,” her mother said. “Now if you don’t have any more questions, I’ll get dinner on the table.”

“Dad’s staying for dinner?” Kellen asked.

“I am,” her father said. “Your mother made my favorite. I’m going to go change and then will help set the table.”

Kellen got up and ran upstairs; Regan went after him.

“Tell me that was a joke,” her younger brother said. “Pinch me right now.”

Her brother pinched his own arm and yelped.

“It’s not,” she said. “I don’t know what is going on. Everyone always said Mom and Dad were the perfect couple. They don’t fight. They are always together for everything for us. They weren’t even upset or mad just now.”

“No,” Kellen said. “Something isn’t right. Or are they that cold and calculating?”

“I don’t know anything,” she said. She wiped her hand under her nose.

She didn’t understand how her parents could just come to this decision as if it were what kind of fruit to buy this week. Then just casually tell their children it was time to try kiwis rather than apples.

Because Kellen was right. Her parents always appeared...perfect.

Everyone said it.

They didn’t fight.

They were always together.

They weren’t even acting upset now.

What the hell was she missing and why did it feel as if nothing in her world would ever make sense again?