Read The Rules for Free Online Page B

going through a game of verbally pulling teeth.
    She could hear Shanae popping her gum. The annoying habit sounded even more annoying over the phone. If she wasn’t her brother’s fiancée and the mother of his child, Terri would have cursed her out a long time ago, but she had made a promise to her brother that she would make an effort to be nice to her. Shanae, however, didn’t have the same desire to be cordial except when Damian was within earshot. Then she turned on the charm, voice dripping with sugar as she hey girl -ed Terri and spouted lies like It’s so good to hear from you .
    “Where is he?” Terri asked.
    “He at work.”
    In addition to operating a crane during the day—a job that paid very well, Damian worked most nights at a warehouse to put away extra money. Not only to take care of his family, but also because with his wedding to Shanae coming up next year, he wanted to give his fiancée the wedding of her dreams. Something he could have done if not for Terri.
    Shanae blamed her for the financial crisis created when Damian’s investments—investments he’d entered at Terri’s urging—bottomed out. At the time, Terri assumed they were all legitimate, but later learned her boyfriend, Talon Cyrenci, had set up shell corporations and laundered money through established businesses—car washes, nightclubs, and flipping real estate.
    A lot of people lost money, including Shanae’s parents and friends Terri could no longer face.
    “Anything else?” Shanae asked, not bothering to keep the impatience out of her voice.
    “Is Little Bit up?” Terri’s asked, referring to her two-year-old niece, LaShay.
    “She sleep.”
    “Oh.” Of course Little Bit would be asleep. Atlanta was three hours ahead, which meant it was almost midnight there. “Well, give her a kiss for me and tell Damian I called.”
    “Yeah.”
    Terri didn’t even know why she bothered. Half the time, Shanae didn’t pass on the messages. If Damian didn’t get a cell phone soon, she was going to get one for him.
    “Bye, Shanae.” Before the other woman could respond, Terri hung up the phone.
    She reclined against the pillows and stared at the white curtain cutting her apartment in two, recalling fond memories of growing up in the little yellow house with the green shutters on Washington Avenue. The year her parents passed away—her father from a heart attack and her mother from complications after surgery—she and her brother moved in with her mother’s mother, Grandma Elisabeth. Her grandmother kept them until they entered high school, when a stroke forced her into a wheelchair. Although still lucid, she was unable to care for them any longer.
    Terri and Damian were shuffled among family members for months, including an elderly aunt whose younger boyfriend used her financially—something all the family could see except her. When he emptied her bank account and ran off, she couldn’t recover. She ignored the eviction notices, and one day, they came home to find their belongings being picked apart in the street by neighbors. They scattered like vultures chased away from a carcass when she and her family pulled up in the old station wagon. Even worst, what was left had been soaked through from a brief rainstorm that flashed through the city hours before.
    They salvaged what they could—a few clothes, a couple of pots and pans so damaged no one wanted them. They lost most everything, but Terri hadn’t cried until the shocking sight of her prized Charlotte’s Web —an old, rare copy given to her by her grandmother—destroyed by rain and torn apart by trampling feet. At that young age—no more than fourteen years old—she vowed to never be a victim again.
    After her first love failed, she saw Talon as a prince, with his cool green eyes, thick black curls swooping down over his forehead, and charming wit. But she learned the hard way that he was not royalty.
    So she decided to stop wishing for a man to save her, and