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wasn’t quite sure he’d heard right.
    “Oh, yeah. I know all about your lies.” Anita turned to Jaylon. “You have to choose. If you can’t see how he’s still destroying you and making us pay for being together, then I’ll take Raven with me when I leave. Just like him, you’ve been punishing her for what happened and that’s not fair. He’s not buying all of those toys and things ‘cause he loves the others; he’s buying them to hurt her.” Anita looked at Jaylon for a long moment.
    “You didn’t want her, and I get that. So from this point on, Raven is my child. She doesn’t need him, and she doesn’t need your half-ass mothering either. Any disciplining, I’ll do it. Decisions to be made on her behalf will be mine to make. I’ll relieve you of your motherly duties, since they, ” she gestured toward the place where Drew and Janetta were hiding, “are the only ones on the receiving end of that type of love from you. Understand?”
    Jaylon nodded through her tears, a movement so small it was almost missed, but not by Raven, whose heart was crushed. Her own mother didn’t want her. What had she done? Why didn’t her mother love her?
    “I’ll be good, Mommy!” Raven cried out, trying to break free from Janetta’s grasp. “I promise! I promise, Mommy!” Raven screamed. She needed Jaylon. Suppose Anita left again as she had so many times before when she and got mad? Pain overtook all fear, and Raven yanked out of Janetta’s reach and ran to the woman whose honey skin was much like her own. “I love you, Mommy. I promise I’ll be good this time. I’ll be good. Just tell me what to do.”
    Her mother never reached out for her, didn’t even look her way.
    “Raven’s mine now.” Anita glared at James. “That should take all the fun out of it for you, shouldn’t it, asshole?”
    “Fuck you!”
    “Not in this lifetime!” Anita reached down and picked up a crying Raven, comforting the little girl as best she could. “None of this is her fault. She didn’t ask for this, and you want her to pay for it all of her life. That’s not going to happen while I’m around.”
    “Okay, okay. You raise Raven. I won’t interfere,” Jaylon whispered and turned to Janetta and Drew who ran to her for an embrace. Raven’s heart shattered in a million pieces as she held onto Anita and closed her eyes against the image of her siblings being so loved by their mother.
    And for a while, the arrangement worked just fine. But after two years, Jaylon was still playing James and Anita against each other. She was able to get love, affection, and mind-blowing sex from Anita, and keep her pockets full and bills paid with James’ money. Whenever Anita would get fed up, she’d try to leave and take Raven, and it was those times when Raven’s welfare took a backseat to Jaylon’s jealousy.
    “If you take her, I’ll call the police and say you kidnapped her. Let’s not forget that she is my biological daughter.”
    “Hooray for a fluke of nature,” Anita shot back. “Just because you squirted her out, doesn’t make you a mother.”
    Raven was the sole reason Anita stayed in that house and in an unhappy relationship for as long as she did. Soon, no sex, no love, nothing could make the woman happy except Raven and Lorrie. And then, even that changed.
    James had never forgotten how Anita had beaten him. He couldn’t best her in a fist fight, so he did the next best thing—he gave Anita’s ex-husband the ammunition needed to hurt her more than any physical blow ever could.
    Lorrie’s father demanded full custody, telling the courts that his ex-wife was involved in deviant sexual behavior in his child’s presence. After several trips to court, it was clear the judge was going to rule against Anita. Her ex laid down an ultimatum of his own: “I’ll drop the lawsuit and you’ll get to keep our daughter, but I want you to move out of that house with that woman and have nothing to do with her or her children.