BRAT GETS WHAT'S HERS!
Kane stood in my way at the door.
"Amanda, you're not going out tonight," he said.
"I'm eighteen," I said. "You can't tell me what to do!"
"Yeah, I can," he said. "I'm your father. And you're going to do what I say."
"You ain't my real father," I said.
Oh, that got him. We'd been living together for years now. I'd even taken to calling him Daddy. But not today I wasn't!
Kane grimaced at me. You should have seen his face. I felt like I'd just scored a goal. A real slam dunk!
Then I realized I hadn't. Kane only decided to take things up a notch. He put out his hand.
"Give me the keys to your car now!" He said.
"Huh?" I said, shocked he'd go this far.
"Now!" He barked.
"It's my car. You can't take my car keys," I said.
"The hell I can't. I paid for that car, and it's in my name. Now hand the goddamn car keys over." He said.
I shook my head. I felt like crying. How had things gotten this bad between us. When mom and he had first married, it was almost like I'd had a new best friend. God, how things had soured.
I sighed. I handed him the keys.
"Fuck you." I said.
"Whatever." He said.
Then tears started to flow. I turned away before he could see it. I ran for my room.
I'd been so excited when my mother had met Kane Sebastian. He was the perfect guy. Good looking, suave, intelligent. And goddammit was he rich. Money just oozed from him. In business he could do no wrong.
But the same wasn't true when it came to women. It seemed he'd gone from one grifter to the next. Kane fell hard and fast for all the wrong women.
And then he'd fallen for my mother. And she was the worst of all. She took him to the bank.
She lied to him for one thing. She'd gotten ahold of some of his private savings accounts and spent all the money. Mostly on gambling.
She'd even borrowed money in his name!
I thought we were sunk. But Kane was like magic. You just couldn't sink him. He'd always spring back up.
It was a struggle, but before we knew it Kane had gotten our financial house in order. Soon we were as rich as ever. More so.
But Kane made sure to put my mother on a leash. He never trusted her again. She still had a line-of-credit like you wouldn't believe. I think he did this just to keep her out of his hair.
I don't know why Kane just didn't divorce her. He could have easily done it. After the way she'd stolen from him, he would have eaten her alive in any divorce court.
So why did he stay married to her?
It was stupid, I know, but sometimes, I wanted to think it was because of me. He was always so nice to me.
I was a disaster when I moved into his home. I'd never been like my mother. I wasn't all glamorous like her.
Sure, I was pretty. All my friends told me I should be a model.
But I didn't care for my mother's life style. That wasn't me at all. I didn't wear the chintzy dresses. I didn't wear all that sleazy make-up that Kane seemed to like so much.
Naw. I actually could do well in school when I tried. And I never really went in for makeup or stylish clothes. I just liked being myself. And the truth was, I really did want to do something meaningful with my life.
But I'd never had the best of friends. Pretty much the opposite. They were always getting me into trouble.
Kane had been trying to straighten me out since I'd moved in. He'd spent a lot of time with me. Taught me stuff about business. Paid attention to how I was doing in school.
He assured me that if I tried, I could do something meaningful with my life. He said I didn't need to be like my mother at all. When I'd started calling him Daddy, it had even felt natural.
And I knew Kane was right. I was hanging out with all the wrong girls.
All we did on weekends was smoke pot and complain about our lives. But no matter how hard Kane tried, I kept going back to them.
Then one night coming home, I'd gotten a ticket. Next came the drug test.
Things had been a mess for a while. My mother? She could have cared less. But Kane had stuck with me through it all. He'd made sure I'd gotten myself straightened out.
"You're a good girl," he kept telling me. "You know it, and I know it. You just got off track a little. That's all. You'll straighten out."