The Sinclair Series Book #1: Tragedy Of Love

Chapter Eleven: Chen Ling

Chen's POV
They haven't stopped arguing all morning. What starts like a jab from mom meant to somehow reprimand him always escalates to shouting battles. The bottom line is Kai and mom don't get along.

I faced outside through the glass windows I have been cleaning. Dad says that it has to be so clean that he walk right through it because he didn't notice it's glass. I can't get sit for the day he will walk through it. But till then, I drowned out Kai and mom and focused on the man practicing tai chi in a pair of shorts only. It's a morning routine for him. Every day at 6am he is out there in front of the ocean practicing tai chi. For a man his age, he looks good. He takes fitness and health seriously. While he's eating a salad, the be rest of us are eating fast food. My mother doesn't have a morning routine. She drags herself out of bed looking like a zombie. She doesn't talk to anyone until she has two cups of coffee which I must mention she did not make and then she begins to gradually function. I adore my parents but mostly my father. He's the calmest most serene human being I know. He married a hot head who goes off like a volcano. That hot head bore him two hot headed children. In a chaotic morning like this, he's the only one who maintains a steady heart beat.

Their argument trickled closer.

Again I ignored them. I keep hearing Kai dragging my name into it. I'm trying not to be sucked in.

I want to let dad know that I'm leaving the island and this time it's going to be a while because I volunteered for doctor's without boarders. He did it when he was my age and I'm motivated to follow his steps. He will be dad to see me go. We get along so well. I can't say the same for him and Kai. That is a whole other relationship that needs help. While mom doesn't restrain her words, dad seals his lips shut and he lets his fierce eyes do the talking. He will truly be sad to see me go. I was about to open the glass doors to go outside when my idiot little brother plastered his palm on the glass I have been cleaning all morning.

"Kai!" I smacked him and just like that the three of us went at it arguing loudly. We went on and on bringing up mistakes from the past as if it helps anything. I glanced outside and I can't see him anymore. My question as to where he went stood close by. When I stopped arguing and looked at him, the rest noticed him too. He makes eye contact and holds it quietly asking for silence. After the three of us obeyed, he walked away. I think he just got tired of talking.

I followed him after hurling the cleaning towel at Kai Lin.

"Daddy."

"Yes sweetheart." He answered. "Pass me the pineapple." I brought the diced pieces to him. "What's on your beautiful mind this morning?"

He smiled at me.

When daddy smiles, he makes everything alright without saying it. He's not a man of many words. The men in my family aren't except for Kai who never shuts up.

"I'm twenty four!" I clapped my hands.

"Indeed you are. Your nai nai wants you to visit her."

My face dropped.

Nai nai is looking for a match. She wants to find me a Chinese husband from a good background also known as old money. I know all the Asian rich boys. It won't work out. I have my sights set on someone else.

"Why?" I pretended not to know.

"Like you said, you're twenty four and you have matured into a fine young woman." He winked at me.

"Do you support this?"

"We agreed on college. It's done. You're out of my hands now."

Nai nai wanted to marry me off when I was eighteen but my mother fiercely objected. They didn't speak for four years. Daddy didn't have an objection but he asked me what I wanted and when I said I want to go to college, he backed me. I want to disappear before nai nai presents a husband.