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“Get the fuck up! I’m not done with you!”

She groaned in agony

“Hey…” I whispered, half-s to my baby sisters Liv was six and Alexis was nine Lauren elve, but she wasn’t ho; I needed to leave soon to pick her up

“I need you guys to sing for me… okay?”

They both looked at me, confused and scared Always scared I tried desperately to stay strong and ignore the ra room

My mom never yelled or cried, it didn’t matter how hard he hit her or how much he terrified her, she wouldn’t show her children her true feelings What you visibly saw on the outside never reflected as on the inside

We were hiding inuntil they overheard the fighting and scattered into my room like they always did

“Devon, Daddy is hurting Mo down her adorable face

“Daddy always hurts Moe to her voice that I hadn’t heard before

“Shhh… you guys re in the car the other day?”

They nodded

“I need you both to go intoyou can find I want you to cover your ears and sing Okay? I need you to sing just loud enough that you can’t hear anything Can you do that for me?”

They nodded again

“All right, ready, set, go!”

They both scooted off the bed and ran in to rabbed the bat that I had hidden under my bed I started to close the bi-fold doors to my closet

“Devon?” Alexis coaxed,me crouch down to face her “Please don’t leave us Promise you will coet upset and I don’t want to see Mommy sad anymore Daddy won’t be nice to her if you make him mad”

I s tobetter Okay?”

“I love you”

“I love you, too,” I repeated

Her arhtly I felt like she was saying goodbye to me I kissed the top of her head and watched as she hid in the back corner of the closet, placing her hands over her ears like Liv, and then they both began to sing I pulled soers and put them all over their tiny fraave me peace of mind

I grabbed the bat and locked the door behindrooht round with blood all over her face and holding her left ar above her and our eyes locked when he heardinto the room

“There you are, you little shit!” He cocked his head to the side and grinned “What’s the bat for?”

I raised it up and swung it at the glass award he was given for Cop of the Year

What a fucking joke

It shattered across the linoleum floor

“It’s for you, you son of a bitch!” I yelled

His eyes widened “You’re going to pay for that”

“Get the fuck away from my mother”

He looked down at her and then back up atIt all happened so fast—

I gasped, waking up in a cold sweat, iout of my chest

“Jesus…” I breathed out, trying to catch my breath

I harshly pulled offthee of the bed I pulled my hair out ofI looked over atto erase the io back to sleep, I knew that I would toss and turn for the rest of the night just like I always had every time I had one of those dreams

I decided to get up and start my day

I remembered it as if it were yesterday, the day I turned sixteen

“Wake up, Brookie It’s your birthday, pretty girl”

I followed the sound of my mom’s voice and my eyes fluttered open I s a key back and forth over my face

I gasped, “No!”

She nodded and I ju all her air leave her body with an oomph sound

“I take it you’re happy?”behind her

I vigorously nodded and s around his tall, built frame

“Thank you, thank you, thank you, Daddy!” I repeated

“Hey, I helped, too,”both of us into her petite frame

I didn’t think that they were actually going to buy reat daughter,squad, helping out with coer sisters

“How could I not get my first born, my pride and joy, her own Audi?”

I smiled and pulled away from them “Thank you so much! Oh my God, I’m so excited,” I squealed

“Well, you have proven yourself h to handle the responsibility of a car We trust you and know that you won’t let us down,” Dad stated

I nodded

“Honey, you don’t need to even say all that,” Mom added “You know Brookie wouldn’t disappoint us”

I smiled I wouldn’t

Dad pulled her into his chest and kissed the side of her neck, causing her to giggle I swear my parents couldn’t keep their hands off each other for more than five minutes The city’s happiest e was stuff made of fairy tales and Disney movies; asto see the love and devotion they displayed for one another with or without people around

“Mo today?”

She sighed “I am, Brooke baby I have that charity in San Jose I can’t pass up I’m chairwoman this year and I must be there, but ill take you out to breakfast and then you are free to do whatever you please”

“Really?” I asked, cocking ht when it was our birthday or even holidays

“Yes,” Dad interjected “Your h to do your own thing, as she has so eloquently put it”

I didn’t want to seeed their minds, but inside, I could barely contain my exciteo to the party that night and I would be driving us in my brand new car She was so disappointed when I told her I couldn’t make it because it was o

“Where would you like to go to breakfast? I have the jet waiting for me so we need to leave soon”

I dressed casually, wearing a yellow sundress to accent hts that made my already blond hair much blonder; it appeared almost white in certain places but blended ith my natural tone It was su out on either of our patios, enjoying the sun and working on our much-needed tan

We used her patioasin and out of the house His co was located in don Miami, but he never sees, strip malls, and condominiums all over t

he city and as far north as the Bay Area of Ta, and Clearwater He traveled often

Mycare ofon thirty, who I sas an old soul, and then there was April, as about to turn fifteen—I was the oldest Mom was active in almost every charity and funded multiple projects around the world; she said it refreshed her soul to give back to those less fortunate

We had lived on Star Island since the day I was born It was a coher-incoh, I hated talking aboutabout status, it sounded pretentious and obnoxious, but et that memo Sometimes, I felt like that’s all we discussed and I knew thearound in a brand new Audi, it wouldn’t take long for the bandwagon of wannabes to jump on board just so they could talk to me

Everyone wanted to be uess you could say ere that elite—the perfect parents who had the perfect hborhood, and the three perfect children It was nauseating, to say the least, but at the sa that everyone else wanted and knoasn’t a façade like most families in our city Mine was real and I cherished that

We ate breakfast on South Beach with my sisters and then took oodbye We were on our way back ho us

“Dad, do you think it would be okay if I stay at Christine’s tonight?”

He looked up from his Blackberry “What are your plans?”

“Oh, well… there is this party that Tony is throwing in Bel Air”

“Will his parents be home?”

I bit my cheek and shook my head no

“I see”

“But! His parents know he’s throwing it They’re out of town and he’s about to go off to college”

“I don’t kno comfortable I am with this, Brooklyn”

“Oh, co to do anything bad,” April chiht, I want to stay at Beth’s”