ot a ride home,

before I even reac

the walls of my family's stately brick h

dy littered with red plastic

the front do

house. People I didn't know were everywhere. A coup

her' s polished mahogany dining table. The air

o pure it almost choked

a small painting off the wall in the living roo

that!" I yelled, r

said we could take whatever w

as I dialed 911. I was going to have every

s snatched from my hand. I spun around to see Sk

id, pocketing my phone. "W

gather around us. Her face transformed, her e

to celebrate our friend's success, and she wants to call the cops on us. Is it because we're n

nt rippled through Liam' s friends. They looked at me with open hostility

He was drunk, his eyes glassy with a mixture of alcohol an

rything my family-everything your family-did for me, you think you can just

in silk. "She's just fragile. She' s not used to people who have to work for a living. We

d until I winced in pain. He was completely buying her act, seeing him

taught a lesson,

anded hard on the marble entryway, the impact jarring my bone

silhouette against the cha

" he said, his voice dripping with cont

, soaking my hair, my face, and my white graduation dress. It

t was a cruel, jeering sound th

of faces, all of them la

lashing, recording my lowest mom

ched and disgraced, in