Prologue

“Dad,” Ivy Greene yelled. They’d been in Haiti for about a month and she was bored out of her mind.

“I’m busy right now,” her father said when he walked into the house. 

“Ivy,” her mother said. “You know Dad just got home. Let him clean up and finish his paperwork.”

“But, Mom,” she argued. It was bad enough that it was only her and Chase now. She was closest to her sister Jasmine, at just two years older than her. But Jasmine was in Georgia and starting college. 

She knew this day would come. One by one, her siblings turned eighteen and went to America to live a life she’d felt she’d been deprived of. They’d all been deprived of.

She’d been the baby for a full five years before Chase came and now she still couldn’t get any attention being the oldest in the house.

Or not the kind she wanted.

“No,” her mother said. “Help me cook dinner, please.”

She wanted to stomp her foot. She knew it was immature, but the frustration inside of her was building. “How come Chase doesn’t have to help? When I was eleven I had to do all sorts of chores, but he gets to do what he wants.” 

“He’s with your father right now,” her mother said.

“That’s not fair,” she whined. Chase had followed her father to the other room to do some work she was sure.

Her mother looked at her. “Don’t get upset. Wipe your eyes.”

“Dad never spends any time with me,” she said. “Ever. It’s always with Chase. I bet even if I said I was interested in learning what he does all day, he still would spend it with Chase.”

Her mother sighed. “Ivy. You know as well as I do that your father is a very busy man. Chase is helping him. If you showed any interest you could too, but you’d just get underfoot.”

“But what if I was interested?” she asked.

Her mother narrowed her eyes at her and picked up the knife for her to move over and help with dinner. “Are you interested or just coming up with another excuse to be with your father?”

She hated that she had variations of this conversation with her mother all the time.

“I shouldn’t have to come up with excuses to be with him,” she said, starting to sniffle. “It’s always all about Chase.”

“That’s not true,” her mother said. “Your father spreads his time out as evenly as he can. We are still new to the area and I know you’re bored.”

“Why can’t we go into town?” she asked. At least when her sisters were around she had someone else to do things with.

“That’s what you want, isn’t it?” her mother asked sternly. “To ask your father to take you into town because you know we can’t go without him?”

Ivy pursed her lips tightly. She was going to get in trouble if she said yes. And if she said no, her mother would know she was lying.

All they did was move from one poverty-stricken country to another.

It wasn’t safe half the time and they could never go anywhere alone.

Some areas were better than others, and as long as she was with her older siblings in a group, she’d be fine.

But Mark, Dahlia and Jasmine were all gone. That just left her and Chase and now she was spending more time doing all the chores that still existed and having no fun at all.

The safety group she had to do things with her older siblings was gone too and no one felt she was responsible enough to take Chase anywhere so she was stuck until her parents could do it.

“When can we go?” she asked. 

“I don’t know,” her mother said. “I’ll talk to your father later tonight. Help me get dinner ready. Or you can go and take the wash off the line.”

“I’ll stay in with the dinner,” she said. Anything was better than folding stiff laundry that was drying outside.

She started to slice the vegetables. Things she didn’t even know the names of. Her mother tried hard to keep the meals simple for them. She didn’t want to think she was fussy, but she just wanted something normal for once.

Like the ice cream she’d gotten when they visited her grandparents in Texas a few years ago. They’d stayed a month and she didn’t want to leave.

She’d been told no, she had to go. Her parents wanted them together.

She supposed it was better being with her siblings than being alone.

Only the day was here when she was alone.

Twenty minutes went by while her mother was dealing with the laundry. All those modern amenities that other sixteen-year-olds had in America were things she didn’t have here.

She had a limited wardrobe. Enough to pack in two bags when it was time to relocate. Not a lot of possessions either. Laptops weren’t things that were common in the village they were living in. Nor the internet. What they got was a satellite and not used often. Normally when her father was working and that was it.

“Do you need help?”

She turned to see Chase walk into the kitchen. “Yes. But as you can see I’m almost done. You always come in when I’m done.”

Chase grinned at her. “I don’t plan it that way.”

She could tell by the look on his face, he did. “Where is Dad?”

“Taking a shower,” Chase said. “He’ll be out soon. It was so cool what he was showing me just now.”

She ground her teeth. “What was that?”

“He said a kid came in today with three broken fingers and he showed me how he fixed and set them. I can’t wait to do all this myself.”

“Do you really want to go into medicine or just want to spend time with Dad?”

Chase laughed and picked up a slice of fruit that she’d been cutting. She didn’t know the name of that either, but it was sweet.

“I want to learn,” Chase said. “Maybe if you read more than you pouted you wouldn’t be so bored all the time.”

She felt the tears come back into her eyes. Everyone told her she was high maintenance, overly sensitive and needed attention.

She didn’t think she did, but she didn’t like to be alone either.

“That isn’t nice to say, Chase,” her father said, coming into the room.

Ivy turned and smiled. She missed her father and was happy he came to her defense.

She put the knife down and went to him to get a hug. “Hi, Daddy.”

It probably sounded childish for her to address her father like this at her age, but it was what came out of her mouth.

Her father gave her a one-armed hug. “Are you behaving?” he asked her.

“Yes,” she said, sighing. She wasn’t five, but her father always treated her as such. “I’m helping with dinner like Mom asked me to do.”

“Good girl,” her father said and moved away.

There was a solid minute of silence while he sat at the table and was on his computer. He didn’t have much of an office space here. Most of the places they lived in had two to three bedrooms if that. She was lucky to have her own room for the first time in her life now. But that meant her father had to give up the room he would have used as an office to Chase.

Maybe she shouldn’t have thrown such a fit about having to share with him with their age difference, but it wasn’t fair. She’d been sharing with her sisters for years while Chase got his own room. 

Her father had given in and said he’d do his work at the table.

“Dad,” she started to say.

“I’m busy,” he said. “Can you wait until after dinner?”

She opened the door for her mother. “What did I tell you?” her mother said softly. “Dad is working. The table is his office and he needs us to be quiet.”

Ivy sighed. She’d listen because she knew she played a part in the fact he was working at the table, but she wouldn’t feel guilty about that.

It’s not as if her parents ever felt guilty about dragging their five kids all over the world with no say.

She didn’t even bother to answer her father. He wasn’t paying attention anyway.

Her mother and she got back to dinner.

But two hours later when dinner was done and cleaned up, she’d thought she could get her chance to talk to her father, only to discover he was sleeping in the chair when she came out of the bathroom after showering.

“Don’t wake your father,” her mother said. “What you were going to ask him can wait another day. Why don’t you go outside and play with Chase.”

“I don’t play,” she said. 

“Then go watch your brother while he entertains himself,” her mother said.

She quietly marched outside where her brother was kicking a ball around. “Come play with me,” Chase said.

“No,” she said.

“Why not?” Chase asked, running over. “You’re just going to sit there and stare at the sky. What do you think of when you do that?”

“A different life,” she said.

One where someone listened to her. Paid attention to her.

Talked to her.

Heard what she had to say.

Maybe gave her five minutes of their time before they gave her chores to do.

“Our life is still better than those that Dad is taking care of,” Chase said simply and ran off to kick the ball, leaving her there as her tears fell silently. Yeah, her eleven-year-old brother made her feel about one inch tall. 

She didn’t know why she couldn’t be happy with what she had instead of wishing for more.