Chapter One
So much for the perfect American holiday. Maybe if we had stayed in Australia none of this would have happened. I always did have the worst luck. Mind you the first week of our ultimate trip went amazingly well. My twin brother Max, his girlfriend Anna, my four year old daughter Camille and I went to Walt Disney World in Florida, we spent a week going on rides, watching shows and eating junk. It was a dream come true for Camille and I, she got to see her favourite Disney characters and her uncle spoilt her rotten, buying her everything she asked for. Max was the reason we were here, he had just been promoted and given a huge bonus, he was an advertising executive and he had landed Kraft Foods and Kellogg for his company, this was a huge deal, so much so that they gave him an all expenses trip around the United States to speak to the big wigs, he then invited Camille and I. Of course I jumped at the chance, I had never been out of the state of New South Wales let alone out of the country and with Camille starting school next year, this was probably the last chance for a trip this big that wouldn't interrupt her schooling. The only downside was Max had also invited his girlfriend Anna along. Anna had only been in the picture for two months but already she was taking over Max's life, trying to push us out, Max was oblivious, he was blinded by her fake tan and giant boobs. Anna was the stereotypical bimbo minus the blonde hair, she was a mousy brown, she worse tight clothes, push up bras and had maybe six braincells in total. She was exactly like the girls that had teased me in high school for being a geek because I liked to read instead of party. I was a huge nerd and pretty naive, even when I turned eighteen and was technically an adult I was pretty innocent. That was until I met Blaze, he was covered in piercings and tattoos and he was cool and dangerous and for some reason he liked me. Or so I thought, he really only wanted one thing, which I gave up, thinking it was forever, but the minute I showed him those double blue lines on my pregnancy test he was out of there so fast I swear he left a trail of flames behind him. My parents were disgusted and threw me out, so there I was 18, pregnant, homeless and alone. Luckily Max was willing to take me in, I got on my feet eventually, working all the way up to my due date at menial jobs, but without my twin I would have been lost. The day Camille was born was both the scariest and most beautiful day of my life, I was terrified and when they told me the cord was wrapped around her neck, I thought I would lose her, but Max was there the whole time. He held my hand and told me it would be ok, even when they rushed me into surgery he was there, he cut her umbilical cord and was the first one to hold her, he didn't want to give her up. We stayed with him until Camille was three and I finally was able to afford the rent on a small two bedroom apartment. There was a lot of separation anxiety there, though it was questionable as to who, Max or Camille, was more out of sorts. We were only twenty minutes away and Max always picked up Camille from preschool while I slaved away behind a fryer at McDonald's. Then Max met Anna and suddenly he couldn't pick Camille up all the time, so I had to take fewer and fewer shifts. I really disliked her, she was nasty to me and ignored Camille as much as possible, but I put up with her for Max's sake. Luckily Anna had a sensitive stomach so she wasn't interested in theme park rides, she spent her days besides the pool at the hotel drinking cocktails. When the week was over we were all sitting in the Orlando airport waiting for our flight to New York City, we were planning on spending a week there before flying to Disneyland in California for a week and then home. Camille could barely contain her excitement, her blonde curls bouncing up and down as she bounded around the seated waiting area, I looked at my beautiful child, she looked a lot like me but there was a lot of her biological father in there too. Blaze had dyed green and blue hair when I knew him so it was a a huge mystery as to what colour my little girls hair would be. When she came out a bunch of soft blonde hair I was surprised, my hair was a dark auburn with a reddish undertone, there was not a hint of blonde in our whole family. Camille looked as though someone had pulled her out of a kids clothing catalogue with her blonde hair, bright blue eyes and perfectly tanned skin, something she did not get from me. I had skin so pale that people had thrown the term vampire around, my eyes were blue too but a much darker shade, not quite grey but not quite blue either. Max got all the looks out of the two of us, he always got the girls, the facial structure and features that made him a heart throb seemed to be out of proportion on me when we were younger, I had grown into my looks according to our grandmother, I was no great beauty but I was not exactly ugly either. I had been on a few dates since Blaze but nothing stuck, I was busy working, being a mother and trying to get my degree in Education, I didn't have time for men. I fondly watched my brother playing with my daughter and felt completely content with everything in my life at that moment. Then the announcement came over the PA system.
"Flight 302 to New York is now boarding sections A to C in terminal seven." the pleasant voice chimed, Camille looked over at me with wide, excited eyes as she had with every single announcement for the last hour. I nodded and grinned at my little girl and she whooped.
"Uncle Maxy! Uncle Maxy! We can get on the plane now! Come on! Come on!" she bubbled as she tugged at his sleeve. I laughed and grabbed my heavy duty backpack, it was full of Camilles things, her toys, some books, colouring books, pencils, I felt like a pack horse but I would do anything to keep my baby happy. Anna sniffed and rose from her seat.
"I think I might ask to be seated away from the little..." she paused looking at Camille, "darling. I have a headache and she is far too loud." she finished. I ground my teeth but kept my mouth shut, I was actually glad I wouldn't have to listen to her inane babbling for the next three hours.
"Come on chickadee!" I motioned to Camille and she bounced over grabbing my hand. We boarded the plane and sat in our seats, Anna and Max were seated elsewhere after Anna caused a huge fuss, she threw bigger tantrums than Camille. A few minutes after settling in a blonde woman who looked to be in her early thirties sat down next to me, she was holding a little baby boy and had a young girl with her too, the little girl was just as blonde as the mother and had a big smile on her face the second she saw Camille. A fairly handsome man with a teen boy settled in the seats across the aisle, I knew the boy was her son because all three were the spitting image of her. The woman smiled and held out her hand to me.
"Hi, I'm Lydia." she said in an upper-class British accent, "this is Sienna my nine year old, that's my husband Grant and our fourteen year old Ethan, and this," she grinned bouncing the baby, "is Spencer, he's six months."
"I'm Zara and this is Camille, she's four." I smiled and shook her hand.
"Oh Australian?" she asked and I nodded.
"Mummy, can I play with the little girl?" the girl asked, her mother looked at me and I nodded again.
"Sure honey, just play nice." the woman told her, I switched seat with the little girl and Camille looked as though she had just met Barbie.
"So, holiday?" Lydia asked me.
"Yeah with my brother and his girlfriend, we've been to Disney world, next is New York, then Disneyland before back home. You?" I asked.
"Well my husband's parents live in a retirement community down here, we live up in New York, so we are heading home." she smiled again. The little baby was cooing and her daughter was showing Camille how to draw a rose, it looked like this was going to be a nice relaxing flight. I could not have been more wrong.
