Anonymous

Chapter 1

"CHLOE!" the voice yelled again.

"I'm coming!"

She shut her laptop and headed downstairs. After a bit of wandering the rooms of their larger house, she found Danika in the den.

Chloe's household wasn't the most normal. It was built a few years ago when her sister's career boomed and her second album went platinum. Her father had it carefully and uniquely crafted to be as modern as possible. Millions of dollars put in along with a lot of sweat and hard work to make each room fit her father's architectural vision.

Impeccably kept dark wood bookshelves lined the west wall of the den. The windows covered the entire north wall that overlooked their in-ground pool in the backyard. The best part of the room, the part Chloe adored, was the large gray sofa bed inset in the floor.

Danika rested on the gray sofa bed, her arm raised only so she could scroll through options on the flat screen with the remote.

Chloe's feet slapped against the cold floor. "What?"

Her stepsister's focus never left the TV. "Did you record something over my Music Entertainment shows?"

She came all the way down here for this? "No."

"You had to have. My recording isn't here."

"That sucks."

Danika's long dark hair shimmered in the light as she turned around. "How am I supposed to keep up with the latest news if you always record over it?"

"I never record anything, Danika." Chloe curled her now freezing toes for warmth. "It's not like you need to know everything about everyone anyway. Those stupid gossip shows should be banned from TV."

"I need to know what's happening in the world."

"Then watch the news."

"I mean the important stuff."

Chloe flicked her eyes upward. Why Creator? "Don't you have a tour to be on?"

"Don't you have a social life? Oh, wait..." Danika turned back to her TV.

Chloe spun on her heel and marched towards the kitchen.

"Leave my recordings alone!" Danika called out as she left the room.

The kitchen was cold and empty. Chloe dragged her feet over to the fridge, tapping a beat against the metal door as she gazed inside. She wrinkled her nose at its contents. All-natural coconut butter, gluten-free bread, oranges, rejuvenating water. Where was a soda when you needed one?

She checked the pantry. Still nothing good. She wanted real food. She wanted sugar. Of course, none of that could be in the house when precious Danika was home. If she found the smallest bit of fatty food she'd throw a fit. Chloe didn't see how that was fair. She's not the one who decided to go on tour and be constantly in the spotlight. She didn't have to watch her figure.

Dejected, Chloe sat down at the table. The top of her Acemark peeked out from beneath the long sleeve of her shirt. She stared down at the birthmark.

An Acemark was a skin mark received at birth. While no two Aces shared the exact same mark, families were known to share similar elements and designs. When your mate was found, it supposedly glowed if they sang to you.

Each family had relatively the same mark, like a family crest. The main part of the mark was always the same, but the surrounding design was special and different for each individual.

Chloe's design began at the underside of her right wrist and spanned down four inches to her mid-forearm. In the center was a green-tinted star, and where the points intersected in the top left corner and the bottom right corner, slow curving lines flowed outward. They overlapped and crawled down her forearm and up toward her wrist like beautiful ivy.