“What isn’t wrong? The situation with Brooke is totally out of hand. Mike told me we have to do something about her or he’s taking Ethan and Abby and going to his mother’s. He doesn’t want them around her, and I can’t say I blame him. All she does is yell and scream and tell us to fuck off. Last night she told him to go fuck himself, that he’s not her father and can’t tell her what to do.”

Sam tried to hide her shock but probably did a piss-poor job.

“How could she say that to him after the way he’s stepped up for her for most of her life? Her own father didn’t want her, but Mike always did. You should’ve seen his face. He was heartbroken.”

Sam ached for the man who’d entered Brooke’s life when she was just a baby and raised her as his own. “I can’t say I blame him.”

“That’s the way she is lately. She goes right for the jugular.”

“What in the world does she have to be so pissed off about?”

“It’s mostly because we hate her friends and won’t let her hang out with them. She never drank or smoked or got high until she started running around with this one girl named Hoda, who’s apparently the alpha bitch of a so-called girl crew that Brooke wants in on. We asked around a bit about Hoda and her pals and didn’t like what we heard. We’ve prohibited her from hanging around with them, so she’s coming at us with her claws out.”

Sam handed her sister another tissue.

“I feel like a monster because I’m actually thinking about sending her away. She’s ruining our lives. The other day, Ethan told me to fuck off. He doesn’t even know what that means, but he’s heard her say it so many times that he thinks he’s being cool copying his big sister. Mike’s right—Abby and Ethan can’t live with her anymore, or she’s going to ruin them too.”

“Shit, Trace. I’m so sorry it’s gotten this bad. I’d drag her ass over here, but we’ve got Scotty now, and we’re not home enough to manage her.”

“You’re sweet to say that, but I wouldn’t inflict her on my worst enemy let alone my precious baby sister. She’s ruining my marriage too. All Mike and I do is fight about her. I keep telling myself we just have to get through this school year, and then she’ll be in college, but I can’t see how we can live like this for one more week, let alone a whole year. And her grades have gone to shit, so she probably won’t even get into college. I don’t know what to do.”