Imperfect

E I G H T E E N - C L A I R E K Y L E S

I yelled from the top of my lungs, rushing my daughter to come downstairs.

"We have to go shopping for your Aunt's party, hurry up!"

My little Kimberly quickly came downstairs as I had Chase on my hip as he was playing with his action figures.

My daughter looked like she had something on her mind, she looked upset—she wasn't the happy girl that she used to be.

"What's wrong sweetheart?" I asked her, rubbing her chin to make her feel a little better.

"I'm still thinking about that day," she said, looking down at the floor, not looking me in the face, "I still feel bad for what I did..."

I didn't like when my children were upset, I didn't like seeing them cry at all. I grabbed Kimberly by her hand and sought her on the couch, as I sought beside her.

"Listen Kimberly," I told her, rubbing her black hair, "you are okay; nothing is going to happen to you."

The guests at my sister's wedding saw the situation this way: he was abusive towards me; he treated me as if I was trash and I was less than him—he disliked my youngest child, his own son...

My daughter saw it with her own eyes. She didn't like how her father was treating me; she was tired of all of the nonsense that he was doing to me.

She got tired; so, she did the only thing that she could've thought of, getting rid of him for good.

The guests and I came up with the solution, telling authorities that my husband was faithfully addicted to alcohol and addicted to painkillers. Surprisingly, they believed it—surprisingly his own family believed it.

Everything came out alright for us, not one investigation, not ANYTHING.