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was with Knox.”
    Bam!
    My mother slung a fiery backhand across my cheek, forcing my rickety knees to give way and fling me to the floor. For a moment I thought about playing dead, but that would only aggravate her more.
    I looked up at the dungeon dragon standing over me. “Ma!” I lifted my arms and crossed them over my face.
    She shoved a hand through my shield, gripped my cheeks, and pressed her fingers into my dimples. “Lie again and you will be over that cliff! You were not with Knox because he called here looking for you. Now. Where. Were. You?”
    â€œWith London!”
    Slam!
    My cheek was scorching again.
    â€œLondon’s in Europe! Now, I suggest you tell the truth before I rip off your face!”
    I could feel her flaying my skin with her eyes. “I was . . . I was . . .”
    â€œYou know what, Rich. You are two seconds from being cut off and disinherited. I don’t know why you keep doing this to me! And it doesn’t matter how hard I’ve worked for all that we have. You don’t care! Why can’t you just listen and be more like your brother? Instead, you’d rather piss on my accomplishments!”
    â€œ Accomplishments? Last I checked you were a hood rat groupie who stalked the locker rooms! What have you accomplished other than marrying my father and pumping out two kids and being all in my business?”
    Whap! I expected that slap. But I didn’t care. She knew I couldn’t stand being compared to her RJ, her sick wonder boy! He may have been overseas at Oxford, but she was still express-mailing him her tittie so he could breast-feed. RJ this. RJ that. Eff RJ!
    Nothing was ever about me! I take that back. Some things were about me—her slaps, her stress, her feeling unappreciated, her anger, her frustrations, her constant arguments with my father: all about me.
    What. Ever.
    All I needed to do was get up and off of this floor so that I could change my clothes and get back to being the boom-boom-bop of happy!
    â€œI don’t know why you hate your brother so much! But if you stopped hating him, maybe you could be more like him instead of being a Hollywood whore!”
    â€œI’m not a whore!” I spat and scooted back, somehow making it out of her clutches. I quickly stood up.
    She looked me over. “Oh, I know you’re not trying to fight me!”
    What? “Fight you?”
    â€œYou heard me!” She walked up close to me and I took a step back. She snatched me by my shoulder and I had no choice but to stand still. “I’m soooo sick of you. Sick. Of. You. You have everything you could ever want and all I ask is that you stop sneaking out of the house and doing God knows what! That’s all I require. But noooo, you can’t do that. You want to be in the street. Well, you’re on punishment!”
    Although my life was on the line, hearing the word punishment made me laugh. “Punishment.” I all but flicked my wrist, twisted my neck, and said, Girl, go sit down. But since I knew better than to take it there, I said, “You can’t punish me! What you need to do is back up and stop sweatin’ me! I’m almost grown and you need to respect that!” She raised her hand and I flinched. “Ma!”
    Wham! I was back on the floor with her elbow in my throat. She looked into my face, and as I struggled to breathe she whispered, “Make this the last time you say anything crazy to me. And make this the last time you sneak into my house. You better make sure it doesn’t happen again because if it does, I’ma pack up all yo’ things, Miss Almost Grown, and you gettin’ outta here! Do I make myself clear? And you better say yes.”
    I nodded, still struggling to breathe.
    â€œThat’s what I thought. I’m not playing with you. You are only sixteen, and that’s what you need to act like! No more chances. After this, you’re finished.” She