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must really be on the verge of—”

“Stop right there,” Sandra hissed, cutting her off. “Unless

you want to find yourself in the real world, fending for

yourself, with no tuition paid, no car, no trust fund, no

allowance, nothing. You stop right there.”

It was Sandra’s favorite threat. Disownment. Disinheritance.

Cut off. Rich moms probably threatened their daughters with it

all the time. Emily expected it, so she just pivoted around,

snatched her backpack, and left the room without another

word.

Let her mom think she’d won this round. Emily wasn’t

going to follow through on her threats. It wasn’t her way to

publicly humiliate her parents, destroy her mom’s show, or

ruin her dad’s career. At heart, she was like all kids and

wanted her parents’ love and maybe even their approval, as

shitty as that was to admit. She didn’t want to hurt them, and

even if she had wanted to, she couldn’t have forced herself to

do it, and not just because everyone thought she was too nice.

It wasn’t right and she couldn’t lecture anyone about going

against what they believed, being true to themselves, or being

a non-hypocrite if she acted that way.

She had a much better plan and later she’d say that her

parents had forced her hand, because they ultimately had. She

would not be spending the next two years of her life studying

something she had zero interest in and absolutely no passion

for. She certainly would not have to endure the rest of her days

locked in an office or going to court. She was not going to

give up on her dreams just like that and live a soulless

existence.

She just had to find the right woman to carry out her plan.