The Reckless Marriage

Chapter 1: Meet Avery

Avery’s pov: 

I was standing near the pane of my window, looking at the evening sky when suddenly I heard my alarm go off. I felt the harsh sounds of it's ring burst into my ears! I slowly walked way from my window and placed my hand on the top button of the alarm! The cold plastic button lowered when I pushed my finger on it and the alarm stopped ringing.

It was seven-thirty in the evening! The time which I longed for, the whole day! The time which held dearly to my heart. I waited patiently for that moment and I could not be any more excited! 

Why was it such a precious time to me, you ask?

Well let me explain! Actually, this was usually the time when I would meet Mr Jones at the police station. He was the only one who offered to help me investigate my parent’s mysterious accident.  The only person who offered me a helping hand when everyone left me alone.

For context, my parents had died, when I was just a little girl at the age of 8, in their car which crashed into a tree and had exploded into dust! Everything was gone! I was flung onto the road by the blast, and left injured.

I was devastated ever since this unfortunate incident had occurred. Mr Jones was the officer in charge of this case years ago. He found me at the accident spot all alone and took care of me for the next few moments of my life until he put me up for adoption.

At first, it was extremely difficult for me to find my new parents but I wished it remained like that. I was super unlucky to be bought into a home of misery, hatred and humiliation. 

My new parents, Katie and Frank Williams were not the ideal parents to have! In fact, I wished I never had their name “Williams” replace my birth name “Avery D’mellio”.

Actually, my new dad, Frank Williams, in particular, was an amazingly sweet and kind person. The only mistake he ever did in life was marrying his wife, Katie Williams. 

She was like the devil himself! Her greed for money, fame and power drove her into insanity that she could not see anyone but herself and her needs. She would always e*****e me to do all the chores of the house while dad would go to work and she would enjoy her little luxuries like a trip to the salon, spa, mall etc.

She would blow a lot of money on those non-essential stuff!

On top of that, since we were particularly middle-class people, she forced me to get a job in the local restaurant while my dad worked in an insurance company. I can say for sure that we were miserable! Our income could barely cover those services! But she would not care at all!

In fact, the only reason why Katie adopted me was to get some extra money into the house as dad’s job could not afford her tiny luxuries. 

I never had any ill will towards Katie despite her cruelty towards me. I have been trying my best over the years to win her love as a mother and live like a normal family where everyone is treated equally and not berated for the tiniest of mistakes. Or even treated as a slave!

After living with them a few years, I learnt to bare Katie’s bitterness but she would always cross a new limit every now and then. I had to learn to tolerate a new insult daily.  At times, one struck harder than the other.

Every time I would be sad or upset because of Katie, I would go to my window, in the tiny shoe-closet shaped room I had, to look at the stars in the sky. 

Ever since I was little, I always regarded the stars as my dear parents. I felt peace in my heart, knowing that they were looking over me.

I would tell them about my day, my worries, Katie’s new insults, basically everything. I felt as if they were listening to me, understanding me and that would always put a smile on my face.

Frankly speaking, I think that is what kept me sane over the years.

Anyways, I stepped out of my room to sneak out of my house to meet Mr Jones. Katie never liked me going there! She insisted that my parents passed away in an accident and that I was wasting time and money for the fact as I was the only one funding Mr Jones to investigate out of my own pay check!

I knew my parents did not just pass away from some accident! I knew there was something weird about the whole thing! I could feel it!

I walked downstairs trying to tiptoe my way out. I saw Katie sitting on the couch with some pink coloured face mask on her face while her eyes were shut with slices of cucumbers sitting on them. Dad was still at work at the moment.

I grabbed my satchel and slowly unlocked the front door, trying to make as less noise as possible. However, that was inevitable as the door was so old that the squeaky sound was quite evident.  We had to get the door fixed or just get a new one but we needed the money to arrange that first of all!

I successfully opened the door and scurried my way out of the demon’s lair. I felt a huge weight off my shoulders as I stepped on the pavement. It was a huge relief!

I looked around the pitch-black road for a taxi to come by. The eerie silence gave me all sorts of chills. The street lamp was flickering and giving out a buzzing sound while a dozen insects gathered around the lamp for its bright yellow light!

Finally, I noticed a bright yellow light coming from the distance. I waved my phone’s flashlight in the air to try and get he attention of the driver.  After a minute of waving my hand, my arm grew exhausted but I was happy that the driver finally noticed me!

I got into the vehicle and was immediately hit with the smell of air cleaner! It was too much and made me cough a little. After adjusting myself and getting a little comfortable, I then extended my arm forward with my phone in hand and gave him the address of the police station where Mr Jones worked at.

During the journey to the station, I was curling my hair with my fingers as I was getting a bit anxious about what Mr Jones was about to tell me. I was so desperate each day to hear more about my parents. Even just the tiniest bit of new information could release me from my years of suffocation, where I could not find anything new!

"Come on, Avery! Stay calm!" I kept telling myself like a broken record so that I would not panic! I knew my parents would never want to see me like this so I tried to control and compose myself as much as I was able to.

A few minutes passed by and the taxi stopped at the pavement near the station with screeching tires. I was relieved to have finally reached the place where I would hopefully get answers to my parents’  accident. Hopefully that day!

I started to take a few steps into the illuminated station which looked night and day in comparison to the dark road.

Walking into the station was a bit of a task for me as the staff there was pretty annoyed with the number of times I had visited the station over the past few years. They certainly had enough of me but I tried not to bother much with them as I knew I was there for far more important things that was my parents! I did not care what they thought about me at all!

After walking past by the weird looks people were giving me, I finally found Mr Jones’ cabin!

As soon as I stepped inside Mr Jones’s small cabin, I was greeted by a very depressed environment and there in the middle of the room, I saw Mr Jones sitting on his chair with a quite sad look on his face. 

I wonder what had happened to him?