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Prologue

Raven

I never had the childhood like irls with fairy tales in their eyes and hopes in their dreams It wasn’t for me I had a dad as a drunk who liked to use his fists, and a junkie for a uess when you’re seven years old, you see more, you hear more, and you definitely do more than you ever should My dad didn’t do ift he ever gave us Though I’ a child with a junkie for aWehis fists on her or slapping et between them That wasn’t easy to explain to the teachers at school, I soed ith a little help from my friend, Selena

That’s neither here nor there, but what doesn’t kill youup I dealt withher to bed at night, ers down her throat to induce vos that weren’t hers to begin with, that’s what I did My one saving grace was always Selena and her parents If things were too bad, if the guys cole wide trailer, I ran like the fla that I’d have a place to stay

I guess that’s why h there was always a place with the Perez family, my feet would take me back home, scared to leave ht of her dying a horrible death with no one there, probably drowning in her own sickness

Now that I’m in my twenties, I realize it should have never been ether— to work a job at Selena’s fa dishes until they could legally payI had to leave that rundown trailer was h school One day, I arrived ho away in certain areas, not toin other places I al in as I stepped on it, barely able to catchIt was in a rundown place where other families could actually afford the rent I still have no idea how ed to even keep a roof over our heads, let alone the electricity on I take that back I didn’t want to knohat she was doing As long as I had a place to lay ht, with a lock onI cared about It’s a wonder the place wasn’t de, les of keychainsfroreeted hteenth birthday, justin the top five percent ofleft—no furniture, one, there wasn’t even a note

I put on s, and h school career That’s exactly what I did, even getting a few scholarships and grants Too bad it wasn’t enough to cover my first year, let alone the four years I needed to coree

That leadsto go further than those four years that would guarantee her than the jerk wad jocks intheir shit didn’t stink It did, by the way I unfortunately had to sentleh Saturdays to ht now

Too bad a certain man in a leather vest, worn jeans, scruffy beard, tattoos from his wrists until they disappeared underneath his white cotton shirt, peeking out on his neck, walked into Diamond’s in the Sky I al that has never, and I mean never, happened before It didn’t help that he took a seat right in front of erous, and he’s staring at me like I’m his last meal while he’s on death row