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PROLOGUE

You are just a woman A woman with hate in her heart and darkness in her soul

You hate yourself, so you take it out on everyone else You are scorned Broken Pathetic

You will suffer at my hands

I will ruin youand you won’t even see

CHAPTER ONE

Ivy stared at the fish tank across fro with irritation She’d studied all the fish in the bubbling water so many times she’d lost count, but there was a new one in the tank today

The new fish was blood-orange hite spots Its body was flat, its left fin ugly and stubby, just like the right fin as it rotated in the tank The fish appeared lost—like it had no clue what the hell it was doing in the glass box It had been snatched from the comfort of its own home Trapped in a tank

Ivy knew the feeling of being trapped—except she hadn’t been trapped in tanks She’d been trapped in box-sized rooms or, worse, forced to share a box-sized roootten along with How it ht other fish, glugging the sa over pellets of food

A door opened to the left and a wolasses on the bridge of her nose, and bright pink lipstick walked out The woman was always dressed like a hippie Loose blouses and pants, and god-awful sandals that Ivy used to call Bible sandals The wo colorful scarves around her neck, even when it was al a yellow and green one

“Welco her hands together joyously Ivy stood up with her purse and sighed It was the sa sratefulness