Safe Haven

Chapter 1 : 1992

Kendall sat in front of her mirror, brushing her hair as she was lost in thought, wondering what her friends had planned for her birthday, remembering how last time had turned into complete havoc, servents running around, the butler trying to put out the fire that somehow ended up burning his tailcoat,

she remembered her father telling her friends to take caution of the fireworks, he wasn't in favor of them as they caused trouble where ever they were, and he was correct, despite the night taking a drastic change for the worst, with a reprimand from her father, he boxed her ears for being so careless.

Smiling at the thought she remembered how her mother would have reacted to the whole ordeal, she would have laughed and then sobered up at her fathers glare to not joke about such matters in front of her, 

Kendall's mother had passed away when she was 8 years old, her father Jordan Pierce was the duke of Hawthorne and after the passing away of his wife had to raise his daughter as a single father, she was the only child. 

At the age of 19 she was a sight to behold, the replica of her mother, with alabaster skin, high cheekbones, a button nose, full lips, and big green eyes, it was the type of green that spoke to the soul of nature, of fresh wands of grass and new buds, and her eyes were that bright color, bold and beautiful. With a petite frame of 5'4, she was mostly teased about.

There was a knock on the door and Kendall abruptly looked towards the door and saw Rachel the housemaid come in and say, 

"Miss Kendall, your father wishes to see you, he is downstairs waiting for you in the living room."

Fixing her hair she put the brush away and said,

'I'll be right down,' smiling as the maid left her be,

She picked up her lipstick and applied a bit of it, satisfied she got up and headed downstairs.

The lights were off in the living room and Kendall knew what would happen next, her friends would jump from behind and say surprise and happy birthday. But she was not expecting what happened next, 

someone came from behind her and put a black bag over her head! 

She screamed and started struggling but whoever was carrying her cared naught. All of a sudden the bag on her head was taken off and before she could react she was thrown into the pool and all of her friends screamed, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY KENDALL!"

Soaking and scared to death Kendall looked around her and the absurdity of it all made her burst out laughing. Everyone dissolved into gales of laughter, her best friends Vanessa and Anna came running to her and got her out of the pool.

Her father came from behind and gave her a kiss on her head, wrapped a towel around her, and whispered to her smiling, 

'happy birthday rabbit.'

'the pool part was completely unnecessary you know,' Kendall told Vanessa, drying her hair with a towel as her other friend Diane gave her a grin,

'but what fun would that be,' she teased, as Kendall stuck her tongue out at them, she excused herself and quickly went up to change into a cute lilac sundress, and when she came down,

the cake was cut and everyone had dinner, which later led to a series of games they all played.

After the party was over and her friends had left, Kendall changed her clothes and joined her father in the dining room.

'im glad to see you so jovial today,' Jordan said, looking at his daughter warmly,

'thank you for everything, I had a lot of fun today,' Kendall said, giving her father a kiss on the cheek, and his eyes saddened a bit.

'what's wrong?'

'when you smile you remind me so much of your mother,' he whispered, giving her a weak smile,

'i miss her,' Kendall said, her eyes watering as she chuckled self consciously, she hated crying in front of people

'i miss her too,' he said, a forlorn look on his face,

after a moment of silence, Jordan waved his hand as if dismissing the moment before,

'well forget all that I have something for you,' he said, getting up and pulling a little box out of his coat, he was always so well dressed Kendall thought, shaking her head and smiling at him. 

'what is it?' she asked, her eyes twinkling with curiosity,

'this,' he said, and when he opened it the contents of the box made Kendall gasp as her magnificent eyes started shimmering with tears. It was by far the most beautiful locket she'd seen, engulfed in silver was a beautiful red ruby in the shape of a tear, and surrounding it was small diamonds.

'your mother wanted you to have this, she asked me to give this to you when you'd become a young woman,' Jordan said, his voice hoarse as he looked at the necklace, a memory playing in his head.

Kendall looked up at her father tenderly, gently picking up the locket and wearing it, it looked beautiful, she looked up at her father and hugged him, 

crying silently in his arms as he patted her head, trying to keep his own tears at bay, with every passing year the absence of her mother became harder, you'd think it gets easier with time, for some people it gets harder.

Jordan lost his wife Ella to cancer when his daughter was not more than 8 years old, his family of 3 had now turned into 2 and it had affected them deeply, 

his child was motherless and he had to take on that responsibility, it was hard, many told him to remarry to make it easier for him, 

but his love for Ella was so deep that the thought of someone else made him physically sick.

 'there-there, don't cry now,' he assured, as Kendall sniffled and tried to control her tears,    

To lighten her mood her father said, 

'Miss I hope you'll not make a habit of crying every time I give you your mother's jewels, else we'll have to send for buckets when you see the rest that belong to you from your mother,'

a teary chuckle escaped her as she wiped her tears away.

----------------------------------------------------

Hello, my darlings,

Well hello to the readers, this is my first book, and it does not come in the category of 'perfect' or anywhere near it but I did try.

Secondly please don't judge the book by the first chapter.

Please vote and leave a comment,
Peace out