na's

s. Pennington savor her perceived

aunts. "Cat got your tongue? Or ar

riously. The plan is risky, but

t to take action,B

, then lifted back to me, humble and wounded.

d. I snatch it away a

ng, soft enough to sound sincere. "Be my sweetbutt. I'll still l

the insult, is so profou

ore: whenever he wanted me to surrender something-my prid

. Because I had loved hi

onigh

ide piece after trying

say, my voice

d.But the fury he swallowed, the cold appraisal, the way h

suffer. "If you walk away from me tonight... I don't know what I'll do." His eyes

himself, and it will be my fault. For a terrifying second, the old Alaina, the one

most disgusting form of manipulation. He is a

own responsibility. It stopped being mine the

pleading, a return to the codependent dynamic w

es her temper completely. "You heartless slut!" sh

were nothing before you married my son!" Her words are pure venom, designed to strip me of

tion of my family,

st time tonight, I smile. A ge

n," I say, my voice cheerful.

onfused by my sudde

hat I brought to this family," I

ad, but deeper into the parking lot, tow

oing?" Brown as

A brand-new, fully customized Ram TR

tons forced me to drive for years to 'keep me humble'-the car

ed, with massive off-road tires and a throa

powerful vehicles, had it commissioned for me as a wedding gift.

en pocket inside my dress. This car, which I

or the sight of me 'helpless' without that pathetic

ck's lights flash, and it l

ily. "You took the keys to the cage you built for me,"

have the keys to

ust been physically and