Thirteen-year-old Daphne laid on her bed, staring at the glow of the second-hand stick-on stars she and her father had put on her ceiling when she was ten years old.

  Mom won! She won! Daphne held a ratty stuffed animal that she cuddled with at night close to her chest and squeezed it tight. She won five thousand dollars! She said that’s two months of dad’s pay combined!

  Daphne let out a squee, kicking her arms and legs into the air. Her dream is going to come true, I know it! She will be a world renowned gardener!

  Daphne had to bite her lip to hold back a screech of excitement. If she keeps this up, we’re going to be rich in no time! I’ll be able to hang out with my friends because it won’t be too expensive anymore! All the foregoing we’ve all been doing will have finally paid off!

  Daphne felt as though she might be able to reach the stars some day, and hold them in her hand. She reached her hand up towards her ceiling, wondering what the future might have in store for her.

  Maybe…someday…Mom will finally decide that I’m old enough and I will get to help her in the garden. Maybe she’ll teach me how to garden like her. Daphne giggled. Maybe someday I’ll get to be the world renowned gardener!

  She thought about her older brother Cy, who was currently visiting for Labor Day. He was upset when they had sent him off to college. “I’ll have to work nearly full time and take out student loans to make it through college,” he whined. “Hurry up and win some competitions so you can pay for my school!”

  Daphne grinned, remembering the moment. It may not be much longer until she can pay for his schooling. I wonder if she’ll be able to pay for mine as well. She giggled at the thought. All that hard work will have paid off.

  For once in Daphne’s young life, she felt optimistic. Most of her life had been spent listening to her parents fight over how they were going to make things work. Things had always been dreary, her mother had always kept the curtains closed, keeping the house dark. After the win, though, things finally seemed as though they were on the upswing.

  Suddenly, Daphne’s bedroom door swung open. She sat up hurriedly on her bed and saw her mother standing in the doorway. Kimberly’s fists were clenched, and her typically perfectly smoothed hair was wild and sticking up everywhere. Daphne gulped, not knowing what was coming, but knowing that whatever it was, it wasn’t going to be good.

  “How dare you?” her mother murmured. Daphne could see Kimberly physically shaking. “How dare you?” she repeated, screaming it out, her fists raising in to the air.

  Daphne’s stomach twisted, as if her mother’s words had been a physical punch to her gut.

  “What?” Daphne asked, her voice barely a whisper.

  “We can barely afford to put food on the table, and things are only just starting to look up. How could you be so selfish?”

  Behind her mother, Daphne saw her older brother Cy hovering, with a malicious smirk on his face.

  The fuck did he throw me under the bust for this time?

  “What are you talking about?” Daphne demanded as her mother flipped the light on, stepping into her bedroom.

  Her mother had yet to look over at her. But, finally, Kimberly focused her beady eyes onto her third child. “You know exactly what I’m talking about,” Kimberly insisted. “You spent a couple thousand dollars’ worth of my winnings on designer clothes to show off to your friends, you selfish little bitch.”

  Daphne felt her eyes widen and her throat tighten. “What are you talking about?” she squeaked out, repeating herself.

  Her mother ignored her, and began attacking the lowest drawer of Daphne’s dresser. She ripped the drawer open, nearly pulling it off it’s track, and started looking at the label of every single one of the items inside, throwing them behind her if they did not meet whatever criteria she was looking for. As the clothes came out one by one, they began to form a pile behind Kimberly, in the center of Daphne’s room.

  “What are you doing?” Daphne asked, shrilly. She had just finished cleaning her room and putting away her clean clothes less than an hour earlier. The way her mother was pulling clothes out of the dresser, all of her effort was quickly going to be for naught.

  “I’m going to confiscate the clothes as soon as I find them,” her mother replied, turning to look at Daphne with a rageful look. “And then we’re going to head to the store and beg them to take the clothes back.”

  Daphne swallowed hard. What will she do if none of the clothes show up?

  Kimberly moved to the second drawer in Daphne’s dresser, ripping it open aggressively, and checking each of the tags on the clothes.

  “I don’t have any luxury clothes,” Daphne insisted.

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  “I guess we’ll see about that,” Kimberly shot back, glaring at her daughter, her eyes daggers.

  A lump was starting to form in Daphne’s throat. She started blinking rapidly, feeling her eyes sting. “I didn’t buy clothes with your money!” she yelled back at her mother. “Why would I do that without asking?”

  “Because you only think about yourself,” her mother growled. “You’ve always been a selfish little brat who can’t see beyond your own wants.”

  Daphne’s cheeks were becoming wet as her mother pulled open the third drawer. “Mom, there are no clothes,” Daphne said, reaching to grab her mother’s shoulder and gently tug on it.

  Her mother shrugged off her hand, glaring at her daughter. “The level of insistence you have that they don’t exist proves your guilt,” Kimberly shot back, angrily.

  “There are no clothes except the ones you buy me!” Daphne insisted grabbing her mother’s shoulder again, this time more firmly. Her mother shot her a look filled with contempt, turned back to her task and elbowed her daughter in the stomach.

  As Daphne clutched her stomach from the blow, the force was enough to make her take a step back. She tripped over the massive pile of clothes, and unable to catch herself, banged her forearm on the metal frame of her bed, leaving a nice long cut.

  Shit. That fucking hurt. Her tears strengthened in intensity as she lost some of her capability to hold her emotions back from the pain of the injury.

  Her mother moved onto the fourth drawer, pulling out Daphne’s undergarments.

  “Stop, Mom!” she exclaimed. “Just stop!”

  “Not until I find what rightfully belongs to me,” her mother answered darkly.

  The undergarments drawer was quickly finished, but Kimberly was not, as she moved onto the closet. “I can’t believe I gave birth to and raised such an entitled little brat,” her mother spat, ripping the closet door open, to the point that Daphne saw some powder coming out of the screws on the hinges. “Such a cruel person should not have been able to come from me,” Kimberly muttered to herself, just loud enough for Daphne to hear. She started yanking clothes off of their hangers, checking their tags and then throwing them into the massive pile of clothes in the center of Daphne’s room.

  “Mother!” Daphne cried out, her heart feeling hollow and wooden. “There are no clothes!”

  “Don’t fucking lie to me, young lady!” Kimberly shouted back. “I know there are designer clothes in this room. And I will find them, no matter where my little harlot daughter hid them!”

  Her mother’s words were finally enough to force Daphne to give up. She couldn’t even cry, she just stared ahead, waiting as the pile of clothes continued to grow in front of her. She had her hand pressed down on the wound on her arm, still growing slightly sticky from the blood.

  There are no words I can say to get through to her. Daphne’s heart felt as though it was being eviscerated. She is cannot be convinced. She would prefer to believe whoever lied to her rather than consider that my words might be true.

  She looked up at her mother, who’s eyes were wild, and her hair more staticky and out of sorts than it had been when she’d walked into the room. Mom says she loves me, but no matter what it is, she’ll find a way for me to take the blame. Daphne squeezed her eyes shut tightly. I’m defective. What sort of mother would call their child a harlot or a bitch unless it was true?

  The pile of clothes teetered over, becoming more of a lump of clothes in the center of Daphne’s room. A few minutes after, Kimberly stepped out of Daphne’s closet, still not having found what she was looking for. Daphne couldn’t help but think that if it was possible, her mother would be breathing fire and having steam coming out of her ears.

  “Where are they?” she demanded of Daphne. “Did you hide them in your bed?” She came up next to Daphne, nearly kicking her out of the way. Daphne only moved a little bit to allow her mother to get closer to the bed. It was all Daphne had the strength for.

  Kimberly began pulling blankets off one by one, and shaking them out. They, soon, ended up in the massive pile of clothes in the room. Eventually, her mother even pulled the sheets off the bed, looking under the pillow, and they ended up in the pile as well. She even pulled up the mattress, checking underneath the entire bed.

  The mattress slammed back into the metal frame with a clang, causing Daphne to wince.

  “Where are they?” Kimberly snapped. She grabbed Daphne by one of her arms and pulled her up onto her feet. Kimberly shook the girl, demanding where the clothes were. Spit hit Daphne’s cheek, and she couldn’t even find it in herself to flinch.

  “There are no clothes,” Daphne repeated, almost robotically.

  “Stop fucking lying!” her mother screamed in her face. “Where are they? Did you hide them at one of your friend’s houses? Tell me whose house they are at, right now!”

  “I did not buy designer clothes using your money,” Daphne replied dully.

  “Stop lying!” her mother screamed, her arm pulling backward to deliver a slap to her daughter.

  “What’s going on in here?” her father asked.

  Kimberly scrambled, pulling her arm close to her head to smooth out her hair, as if she hadn’t just been threatening her daughter.

  “I found a two-thousand-dollar charge on our debit card,” Kimberly replied, her voice shaking a little.

  Daphne turned to see her father stepping into the room, his face rapidly losing any color that it had.

  “It was a purchase from a luxury brand,” Kimberly continued. “I started asking all the kids if they knew anything, and Cypress told me he had seen Daphne with my debit card the week before he left for college.”

  Daphne swallowed hard. It was Cy. Of course, she believes Cy. Even though I’m the one who saw Cy with her debit card.

  “I’m just trying to recover the clothes so that we can hopefully return them and get our money back,” Kimberly said.

  I even asked him what he was doing. I should have known he was up to no good when he told me it was none of my business. Of course he would throw me under the bus. If I try to say it was Cy, there’s no chance in hell she’s going to believe me.

  Daphne’s cheeks were wet again. If I try to say anything I saw now, it’s going to look like I’m trying to get out of it.

  “I understand,” her father said. “But for now, let’s take some time to cool down, hm? It seemed like things were getting pretty heated in here.” He held his hand out to Kimberly, not even sparing a glance at his daughter.

  “Because she won’t tell me where the clothes are,” Kimberly hissed, grabbing hold of one of Daphne’s shoulders again.

  “Kimberly,” Ian said sternly. “Let’s go.”

  Daphne’s mother sighed angrily, and let go, stalking out of the room.

  Her father finally spared her a glance. He seemed upset with her as well. “Clean up this mess,” he said firmly, as he closed the door behind them.

  As the latch clicked, Daphne could no longer hold herself up. Her knees gave out, and she fell to the floor, silently crying and clawing at her chest. Her heart felt as though a whole ocean of emotion needed to be released from it.

  I will never be able to live this down. Even though I did nothing wrong.