Chapter 45

• Lionel attempted a laugh at me, trying to brush aside my efforts as nothing, and that made it burn all the harder in my chest, keeping my hand right on up there.
• I didn’t have eighteen thousand dollars. I barely had anything left anymore. I’d used it on drugs, and partying, and running up debt in places I shouldn’t . . . in people I shouldn’t. Places and people I could never share with my family without them scoffing at me. The Power brothers were after me and my backlog, charging interest at an unbelievable rate and knowing full well I’d have to pay it without going begging my mother since there were rumors everywhere she’d already written me off.
• She had. Those rumors were true.