Page 1 of Fierce-Zander

PROLOGUE

“Regan, 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.

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