The Darkness of Perfection Read Online Free PDF Page A

to grow into the perfect wife to live in my world. How was a thirteenyear-old boy supposed to know what that even meant? I was too young to understand. I only knew that I liked the feeling I got when Jayden would look to me for approval with absolute trust in her eyes. I liked feeling like her hero who could make her smile. I was no hero. I was a villain, the same as everyone else in our world. I just hadn’t realized it yet.
    My mother tried over the years to teach my brother and me to be different; to be better men, and change our destinies. Our father was grooming us to take over the family business when he was ready to step down. My brother was quick to embrace the power our father possessed. After all, what could be better than being rich, powerful and untouchable? Knowing that men groveled and cowered at your feet, ready to do anything or give up anything just because you demanded it of them?
    Jayden’s father had done just that when he gave her to me.
    I didn’t have that realization until Jayden’s mother took her away from me. That was when I fully embraced the man my father wanted me to become. It was my idea to let her parents come to prove how good of a job I had done with her. It was my softness due to my mother’s whispered words over the years which lost me Jayden. Never again. If I’d been stronger like my father, Jayden would have never had the opportunity to escape for so long.
    We were able to track down the used car salesman who sold them their means of escape. After some persuasion, he told my father she’d used his computer to look up directions to Springfield, Missouri and gave us the make and model of the car she purchased. Years of searching every possible route between Houston and the state of Missouri, leaving no stone unturned, had come up empty. We even searched Arkansas and Oklahoma in case she stopped before reaching her final destination, but it was like they vanished into thin air.
    Her father was held accountable for his wife’s actions. She stole from my family, from me. Jayden was my property and I watched in cold indifference as her father paid for his wife’s crime with his life. I encased my heart and my feelings in ice, never allowing anyone close enough to be able to hurt or betray me again. I pushed my mother away and became just as cold and callous as my father and brother.
    I refused to accept my father’s attempts to replace Jayden. I would bed the whores available to me, but nothing more. My brother chose his wife when he came home from college, surprising everyone by picking the daughter of one of our servants who had been slated to be sold overseas to a private buyer.
    He could continue the Harrison empire with his own kids if they ever had any. It was unrealistic, but if I couldn’t have Jayden, then I wanted no one. I’d built her up in my mind over the years as the ultimate in perfection. The perfect beauty. The perfect complement to my home. The perfect companion. The perfect wife. Anyone less would never be good enough in my eyes.
    From the moment I gazed into eyes the same rich color of jade that she was named for, I knew my waiting hadn’t been in vain. Fate was rewarding me for my patience. Our surroundings faded to gray. I didn’t notice the tropical beauty around us, the magnificent sunsets over the ocean, or the opulent décor of the ship. I only saw the beauty she had become.
    My imagination failed to do her justice. She had grown to be more beautiful than I could have ever dreamed. She made people smile just by being in her presence. Her eyes shone when she laughed and made you want to act like a fool just to encourage her laughter to continue. She was affectionate with her family, and gracious and kind to the crew members who waited on her. I couldn’t help but picture her on my arm and overseeing the care of my home with her beauty and grace.
    My thoughts were interrupted by my friend Daniel leaning against the rail beside me.
    “You realize it may