“I will not,” I say, meeting her eye to eye for the first time since I arrived. “I own this trailer. For now. I can stay as long as I like.”

I’ve never spoken to my mother like this. Never stood up to her, stood against her.

She narrows her eyes like she’s just waiting for the right time to strike back, then she snaps her head around to my sisters. “Get back to your room. You don’t need to see this.”

Marion scuttles off back into the bedroom. It hurts, but I can’t blame her. She’s sweeping up hair at a salon. She’s the only one who might not be able to afford her own place, even without giving up most of her paycheck to Mom.

“Mom,” Kitty cries. “Don’t be mean to her. She’s our sister.”

“She’s no daughter of mine,” she spits. “She always was a troublemaker. She’s a little bitch. She’s probably been sleeping in a bus shelter since she left here. She’s got a snowball’s chance in hell of surviving. And that’s what she deserves. Hell!”

I laugh. I can’t help it. Years of pent-up frustration just spills out of me and it comes out as laughter. I don’t know why, but she seems so pathetic, spouting off the most awful things about her daughter. A daughter who’s devoted her life to her.

It’s so clear to me. The lack of love and care is everywhere. It’s not that she’s selfish and mean and cruel. She doesn’t love us. Doesn’t care if we live or die. A part of me dies at the realization, but the rest of me is free—truly free.

“Do you see it?” I ask Kitty and Lydia. “You only exist to serve her. If you escape, she doesn’t want to know you. Because you no longer serve a purpose.”

“That’s right,” Mom interrupts. “That’s why they’re here. With me. You can get out.”

“Is that what you want?” I ask my sisters, ignoring Mom. “To be stuck serving a woman who’d disown you as soon as you do something she doesn’t like—like try and create a life for yourself?”

Panic and fear fill Lydia’s and Kitty’s faces, but they don’t flee to the bedroom. Part of them wants to hear this.

“There’s a way out. And I can help you,” I say. I’m sure I can get them jobs at the Colorado Club. What’s left of my savings could get them cheap flights out to Colorado. It would be tight, but I could do it. “It’s frightening. I get it. But when you’re ready—when you see what she’s really like and you decide you don’t want to put up with it anymore—I’ll be waiting.”