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Back The Mother Next Door Save as PDF
Chapters (84)
  1. Cover
  2. Praise
  3. Dedication
  4. About the Author
  5. HALLOWEEN
  6. Seven Weeks Before Halloween
  7. ONE
  8. TWO
  9. THREE
  10. HALLOWEEN
  11. Six Weeks Before Halloween
  12. FOUR
  13. FIVE
  14. SIX
  15. HALLOWEEN
  16. Five Weeks Before Halloween
  17. SEVEN
  18. EIGHT
  19. HALLOWEEN
  20. NINE
  21. TEN
  22. HALLOWEEN
  23. ELEVEN
  24. TWELVE
  25. Twenty-Five Days Until Halloween
  26. THIRTEEN
  27. FOURTEEN
  28. HALLOWEEN
  29. FIFTEEN
  30. SIXTEEN
  31. SEVENTEEN
  32. EIGHTEEN
  33. NINETEEN
  34. TWENTY
  35. HALLOWEEN
  36. Eighteen Days Until Halloween
  37. TWENTY-ONE
  38. TWENTY-TWO
  39. HALLOWEEN
  40. TWENTY-THREE
  41. TWENTY-FOUR
  42. Eleven Days Until Halloween
  43. TWENTY-FIVE
  44. TWENTY-SIX
  45. Eight Days Until Halloween
  46. TWENTY-SEVEN
  47. TWENTY-EIGHT
  48. TWENTY-NINE
  49. HALLOWEEN
  50. THIRTY
  51. Four Days Until Halloween
  52. THIRTY-ONE
  53. HALLOWEEN
  54. THIRTY-TWO
  55. Two Days Until Halloween
  56. THIRTY-THREE
  57. The Night Before Halloween
  58. THIRTY-FOUR
  59. HALLOWEEN
  60. THIRTY-FIVE
  61. Halloween, Present Day
  62. THIRTY-SIX
  63. THIRTY-SEVEN
  64. HALLOWEEN
  65. THIRTY-EIGHT
  66. HALLOWEEN
  67. THIRTY-NINE
  68. HALLOWEEN
  69. FORTY
  70. HALLOWEEN
  71. FORTY-ONE
  72. FORTY-TWO
  73. FORTY-THREE
  74. FORTY-FOUR
  75. HALLOWEEN... NOW
  76. FORTY-FIVE
  77. Seven Months Later
  78. FORTY-SIX
  79. FORTY-SEVEN
  80. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  81. ALICE SWANSON’S
  82. Reader's Guide
  83. Questions for Discussion
  84. Booklist

“If you dare try to spread any kind of lies about me or my friends”—I pointed my finger at her—“if you even air one second of something like that on TV, I will sue you and the news station and make sure you never, ever appear on camera again.”

Her cameraman held his hands up. “We’re cool, we’re cool,” he said, nudging Maggie. “Come on.”

“I will do no such thing,” Maggie yelled. She snapped her wand in half, throwing it into the woods.

But the group started heading back up the path. And Maggie Lewis, fairy godmother, had no magic left to transform any of us into rats.

HALLOWEEN... NOW

Ladies and gentlemen, skulls and boys...

By now you’ve guessed it’s me: Eleanora, Nora, Ellen... Ms. Jackson if you’re nasty.

I’ve attempted to relay the events as I understand them, as my dear mother Jacqueline told them to me when I located her this past summer. My friend Jayden’s mom, Mrs. Millson, took Jayden and me to New York City to visit NYU’s campus—because my own father wouldn’t take the time out of his busy schedule for college visits. I told Mrs. Millson I was meeting my mother for dinner in the city, and she let me go.

Adults will let you do anything if you’re confident about it.

Our neighbor had mentioned the show my mother was in, and I looked up the theater online and got there just as she was finishing a rehearsal. She had no choice but to talk to me. I wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

It was my seventeenth birthday present—happy fucking birthday to me. A shitty NYC diner, a plate of french fries, and a black coffee, and the confession of my mother’s deepest, darkest secret. The reason she left me. The reason Daphne Brown died the night I watched Snoopy on the television on her bedroom floor.

I decided what I was going to do on the drive home from the city that summer. I had no proof of any of it, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t make them all squirm. Why shouldn’t I shake the foundations of their homes? Blast a bit of poison into the air. Knock a few inches off their Steve Madden stilettos. Didn’t they deserve that, at least, for what they did? For who they are?

I’ll admit I filled in some blanks of this story. Improvised where necessary—isn’t that what a good storyteller does? Of course, the important things are all true. Those facts are set in stone. Alas, the fate of Daphne Brown cannot change, no matter how many embellishments I add to the tale.

She is dead.

My mother—and all the other mothers—are to blame.