Love Squared to the Second Power

Chapter One

My life wasn't exactly butterflies and roses growing up, it was a challenge to which I always rose too though. I was born on the beautiful island of Hawaii; my parents were both Naval officers. The island was so beautiful in many ways from the full bloom of the forests to the ocean view, all the way to the amazing customs. It is also where my name originated from Maleaha which means princess of the sea in Hawaiian and in American Indian it means fire princess. Which suited me as I was a Scorpio with both a temper and a flair for romance. I had to fight to be here, I was born with several bad medical conditions that tried to take my life many times from the moment I was born. I have a twin brother named Melkon, he was the first born, his delivery went perfectly fine, and he did not have any health issues. His name has a similar meaning I guess you would say, though his means Prince of Strength and Prince of Wisdom.

My mother and father were from the east coast. They were born in New York in a small town called Trenton Island. It popped up when an earthquake brought a bunch of magma up to the surface in the early 1900s. My grandparents were the ones who brought life to the island. We would spend a lot of time there and I loved every second of my time with my family. Going back to where my parents were from was always an adventure. My grandmother would have us busy in the kitchen in the evenings baking away. During the day my grandfather would keep us busy in the garage. I loved working on cars just as much as I loved baking.

Things were great, our parents were friends with mine and Melkon’s best friends' parents. Halena and Hayden, we did everything together. Our parents were US Naval officers, their parents were US Marines. Their parents were from Washington and were complete west coast people if you ever saw one.

My father Rusten was really good friends with their dad Jaxston. My mother Grace was really good friends with their mother Kursten. We did everything together, even a little rivalry on which branch was better. The fun we had was amazing.

So, when things got strange around us, we couldn't figure out what happened. It was like someone flipped a switch and everything changed in the blink of an eye. Our mom and their dad were having a lot of conversations in the basement. Our dad and their mom were sneaking off to the garage.

Our parents never fought so we couldn't just eavesdrop on conversations and catch what was going on. We all seemed to notice it, so I knew it wasn't my overactive imagination.

Then suddenly when we were about ten years old our parents separated. Not more than a month after the divorce my father married their mom, and my mom married their dad. They didn't seem to have hard feelings. In Fact, they seemed to get along a lot better than when they were married.

None of us really minded the divorce and remarry. Especially since now my best friend was also my sister. If our brothers had a problem with it, you would never know it by the way they acted. They were like two schoolgirls excited about a sleepover. The only thing that was weird to all of us was the spending time away from one set of parents. We were all used to having both of our parents now it was split up between two houses.

The judge ruled all four of us kids would live six months a year with one set of family and then six months a year with the other set. It sounded great to us until our father and their mother was moved to California and our mom and their father was moved to Virginia. So now the four of us kids had to go six months of school in one state then six months of school in another state.

When high school rolled around, I decided I wanted to do dual enrollment where I could go to college while in high school. In Virginia I chose to go for my nursing degree and in California I decided to go for my paralegal by my sophomore year. I had already completed the requirements for both colleges and all I needed was my high school diploma to be awarded both degrees.

Then the unexpected happened. My mother and stepfather were relocated to Michigan. I loved visiting there since we had a lot of family there. It wasn't a huge change. That came when my father and stepmother were relocated to Illinois. The way us kids were getting thrown around was as if we were a part of an army of soldiers ourselves being moving all the damn time. So now we had to deal with two new schools as we were entering our junior years of high school.

We all made friends and life was great. I dual enrolled again going for my massage therapy degree and my computer programing degree. I had a lot more friends especially since I was confident that I wouldn't have to move again since I was almost eighteen and I would have the choice rather or not to move. I rarely slept so I worked and went to school as well as having the occasional bit of fun.

Around the end of my senior year all four of our parents were relocated to Louisiana. So, the four of us got a house together and stayed in Michigan. We finished our year out in Michigan and that's where we got our high school diplomas. It was weird having four college degrees by the time I graduated but my parents always called me an overachiever. I was excited, I planned on enrolling in two different universities. My father and stepmother planned to pay for one and my mother and stepfather planned to pay for the other.

I was going to be a doctor and a lawyer. That is when my heart broke my grandfathers on both sides were diagnosed with cancer. I lost an uncle on my mom's side and one on my dad’s. I lost an aunt on both sides of my stepparents, which hurt just as much since we were family to them since we were born. They would even fight anyone who claimed we were not really their family. Both grandmothers on my stepparents’ sides were diagnosed with cancer. I was not in the best state of mind, and I just knew I wanted my grandparents at my wedding, so I jumped the gun. I decided to marry my best friend. Him and I had been inseparable since I had moved here.

We were pretty much joined at the hip, though he was pretty sure he was only gay he said it would be an honor to marry his best friend. I really didn't care about anything except a wedding with my whole family there. I would probably had married the homeless guy from the park just to have a wedding and my family.

Both of my fathers did not approve but I didn't care. They refused to pay for the wedding which didn't matter because my soon to be husband had money to spare. We had this very romantic huge princess themed wedding with all of our families there and our friends. Life was so great or so I thought. People I hadn't seen since I was a child flew in from the Island. Raymond was finally meeting everyone who ever had an impact on my life.

I was excited to reunite with everyone. I kept in contact with most everyone I had ever met. Just before my father's walked me down the aisle they asked if I was sure I really wanted to go through with this, that it wasn't too late to change my mind. I told them to relax, that he was my best friend, and we would be good.