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Chapter One

Zoe McCourt was sixteen when she rown up in the inia , the oldest of four By the time she elve, her father had already run off with the wife of another man

Even then, Zoe hadn't considered it any great loss Her daddy was a short-te beer with the boys or banging his neighbor's wife rather than seeing to his own

Still, it was hard, since ht home a paycheck

Her mother was a thin, nervous woman who smoked toohiularity, with boyfriends cut from the same cloth as Bobby Lee McCourt They , but she'd never been able to do without a ht in any case

Crystal McCourt had raised her brood in a double-wide, slotted into a lot in theHillsideTrailer ParkAfter her husband ran off,Crystal got shit-faced drunk and, leaving Zoe in charge, hopped in her third hand Ca son of a bitch and his godforsaken whore"

She'd been gone for three days She hadn't found Bobby, but she came back sober The chase had cost her some of her self-respect, and her job at Debbie's House of Beauty

Debbie's House ular pay

The experience toughenedCrystal considerably She sat her children down and told the to be hard, but they'd find a way

She nailed up her beautician's license in the trailer's kitchen and opened her own house of beauty

She undercut Debbie's prices, and she had a talent with hair

So they'd gotten by The trailer had sotten by