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She digs in her purse and pulls out cash. “Take it. Please let us go.”

The man with the scar takes the money from my mom and shoves it into his pocket.

“Should we let them go, Dillon?”

“After I have fun with the little one, Brody.” Dillon grabs me, pushing me to the ground.

Mom reaches for me, but Brody pulls her back. She screams and scratches at him.

I scream too, but Dillon covers my mouth with his dirty hand.

He tries to unbutton my pants, but I fight him with all my might, scratching his eyes. He wails and slaps me. Pain bursts,but I keep hitting him. My mom screams, and the man cries in pain.

I see broken glass near my hand. I reach for a shard and stab Dillon in the face and neck. Blood splatters everywhere. He wails in pain, gripping the glass shard sticking out of his neck.

Terrified at what I’ll find and the fury on his face, I kick him away. He drops to the ground as blood pools around him.

“Fuck!” Brody freaks and rushes out of sight.

Mom scrambles over to me as my body trembles.

I can’t look away from the dying man on the ground.

Mom tells me, “It’s going to be okay, honey. Breathe.”

I try to breathe, but my mom leaves my side and walks over to the dead man. She yanks out the shard and stabs him afew more times in his neck. More blood spills out. His body doesn’t react to her stabbing because he’s already dead from my attack.

With her bloody hands, she smears the blood onto her shirt and khakis.

“M?,”I cry. “What are you doing?”

“It was self-defense.” She looks at me. Though she appears calm, I know she’s pushing the fear aside for me. “I was defending you from this violent man.” She drops the bloodied shard on the ground.

Sirens blast in the distance.

We don’t know who called the police, but they arrive quickly. Instead of giving us time to explain the situation, they arrest my mom. I tell Officer Caruso that the dead man tried to rape me, and his accomplice ran away.

The officer ignores my statement and says, “Do you know who just died?”

“A criminal,” I say, still worried about my mom.

“He’s Dillon Claude Harris, the heir to Harris Pharmaceutical.”

“I don’t care who he is, Officer Caruso. He just tried to rape me. But you arrested my mom.”

“Someone has to pay for it,” he says, gesturing to the ambulance. “The EMTs will take you to the hospital for a checkup.”

As I walk toward the ambulance, I hear the officer talking to someone on the phone.

“Don’t worry, sir. She’ll pay for her crime.”

That’s when I realize my mom is going to prison for something she didn’t do.

Banging on my door yanked me back to the present moment.

“Be right there.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN