The Dark Side of Family (The Dark Side, Book 1)

Missing

[Quick Author's Note: Hey, guys! I'm back at school. I know it's been like a month since my last update, but at least I warned you it would be this time! I finished this earlier today, so here you go! I introduced a new character. Hope you like him. :)

I hope you all enjoy the latest chapter of The Dark Side of Family!]

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Kale carried his bag over his shoulder, dumping it into the passenger seat of his gun-metal gray, limited edition Aston Martin V12 Vantage Roadster. He walked around the hood of the car as the lawyer chased him down the steps of the mansion he now owned.

“Mr. Ryder, wait!” called the attorney as he clambered down the sweeping marble staircase.

Kale noticed briefly that the man had left the giant mahogany doors to the mansion open, but he didn’t much care. Ignoring the lawyer’s plea, he places his left hand on the frame of the door and jumped into the driver’s seat. Turning on the car, he took a moment to hit the switch to raise the roadster’s top. Then, he sped out of the driveway, flinging tiny pebbles that lay on the pavement in his wake.

Belvedere was a nice spot, and Kale had spent his entire life in California. He loved California, he really did, but something had been calling him North-East for years, and his shopping trips to New York had never quite managed to cull the urge. His father had never understood his fascination with New York, and had refused to let Kale go to school there. According to his dad, he’d never need to leave California except for vacations; according to his dad, he was an idiot for wanting to live anywhere else.

Well, dad, Kale thought to himself. I’m leaving California, and I’d say that you’d roll over in your grave, but your body isn’t even cold yet, let alone buried.

Kale had loved his father right up until the bitter end. He’d been a tough man, but he had given Kale everything he needed and most of what he wanted. He’d worked hard all of his life to amass a fortune, and then he had doted upon his only son. His father had never been an easy man, it was true…and he had been controlling in some ways, like with where Kale lived. His father had been good to him, though, and so he had stayed in California because his father had wanted him to.

When his father had gotten sick, he’d willingly stayed in California to take care of him. His dad had offered to hire a bevy of nurses and medical staff to stay with him twenty-four/seven, allowing Kale free time, but Kale had refused. Kale had made sure there was a live-in nurse, but he had stopped going out and partying all the time and instead had stayed at home to care for his dying father. Kale had been there to hold his father’s hand as he lay prone on his deathbed in the upstairs bedroom.

It’s the memories that slow you down, he thought to himself. It was something that his father had always told him any time he had asked about his mother. By the time he was eight, he’d stopped asking. He figured it was about time he adopted his father’s saying, and so he focused on the road ahead of him and the song blaring from his sound system as he left everything he’d ever known behind him.

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Kylie sat on her knees, wrist aching and chest heaving. As suddenly as the pain in her chest had appeared and subsequently dissipated, another pain arose. She clutched her stomach, feeling as though a hot knife had been thrust through her abdomen. She collapsed forward into the snow, gasping for breath as tears streamed down her face.