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Wetness slid down my cheeks, blood mixed with my tears. My entire face felt as though it was on fire.

I sat up and tried to scoot to the other side of the bathtub. I tried to get as far away from her as possible in the limited space.

I didn’t make it far. She latched onto my hair with both hands and yanked. I flew backwards as the water shot up all around me. My body slid easily through the water as my hands went to the top of my head and I tried to pry her hands out of my hair.

She shoved me down, down, down and under the water I went. Stupidly, I opened my mouth and screamed. All the air left my lungs in a mass of bubbles that burst from my mouth and rose to the surface. I inhaled water and choked. She let go of my hair, leaned forward and wrapped both her hands around my throat. She squeezed and I found myself choking for a different reason, but still choking all the same.

I watched my mother’s face from upside down as she tried to choke the life out of me. I kicked out with my legs and bucked my body. I grabbed ahold of the hands wrapped so tightly around my throat and tried to pry them off me. Unbelievably, she squeezed tighter.

The pressure in my chest was so intense I felt like my chest was going to explode. It was hard to lift my hands when they were so heavy, but I managed to touch the sides of her face. She had no free hand to remove my hands from her body.

I sunk my nails into her cheeks and dragged them down her face, leaving angry red lines in their wake. Blood immediately began to run down her face as she screamed wordlessly in rage. But she did not let go of my throat.

I stared into those eyes, the same eyes I saw staring back at me out of my own face every time I looked in the mirror save for the difference in color. This woman, this cold hearted, evil bitch of a woman, was my mother. She took part in creating me and I’d come into this world by leaving her body. And now she was trying to kill me.

I raked my nails down her throat, ripping the skin open as I went. Still she squeezed my throat.

My lungs burned and my arms dropped as the fight went out of me.

I was going to die, and by my own mother’s hands.

I closed my eyes so I didn’t have to see her face while my world faded to nothing but darkness.

Suddenly her hands were gone and I was being lifted out of the water. I could breathe again. She’d let me go.

Sound came rushing back to me at the same time as air did. My mother was screeching hysterically and I heard the deep rumbling of a male voice, but the words were too low for me to hear.

I focused on breathing and making sense of my mother’s words as hands smoothed my wet hair out of my face. It hurt to breathe through my sore throat and my lungs still burned.

“She’s my daughter and I’ll do whatever the fuck I want with her. But you, you need to leave. Right the fuck now, or I’ll call the cops on you for breaking into my home.”

“Lady, we just walked in on you trying to drown your own daughter. Go ahead and call the cops. I want you to. Please, please call the fucking cops. I dare you.”

That quiet, lethal rumble came from Quinton. Quinton was here.

Thank god.

I opened my eyes as my mother screeched, “Get the fuck out of my house.”

Quinton stood with his back to me, in-between me and my mother. This was the first time I’d been happy to see him.

Hands smoothed down my bare arms and I realized I was sitting in someone’s lap.

“It’s okay, Ariel,” Julian whispered in my ear as he wrapped his arms around my chest. It should have been awkward and embarrassing because I was naked and sitting in his lap, but it wasn’t. He’d come with Quinton and they’d saved my life. I could be embarrassed later, for now I just wanted to sit here and breathe. “We got you, you’re safe now. She’s not going to touch you again.”

Julian stood up with me in his arms as if I weighed nothing. He held me in his arms with one around my shoulders and one under my knees.

“Get her out of here,” Quinton growled without turning around to look at us.

“No,” my mother screamed. “Ariel, you’re not going anywhere. You’re my daughter and you’ll damn well do as I say.”

“You’re not getting anywhere near her ever again, you crazy bitch,” Quinton rumbled at her.

Julian walked towards the door, putting his back to them. I looked over his broad shoulder in time to see my mother lunge towards us. Quinton blocked her path and put a hand in her chest and shoved her backwards. She stumbled back, tripped over her own two feet and went down.

I watched in horror as her head hit the corner of the countertop on her way down. There was a sickening thud and then she was sprawled out on the floor. She didn’t even put her hands out to try and break her fall. First her head bounced off the corner of the countertop, then it smacked against the tiled floor.

“Julian, stop,” I whispered hoarsely.