“Bullshit! Didn’t you eat breakfast just yesterday morning?”
“At your age, you dare talk back and lie to me?”
She grabbed my hair and dragged me to the fridge.
Jerking the door open, she pointed at a bowl of rotting, foul-smelling stew inside and said:
“If you’re really hungry, why didn’t you just heat up the zucchini and eggplant stew I worked so hard to make yesterday?”
“You’re nothing but lazy and greedy!”
She shoved me to the ground, my head hitting so hard that it bled.
Jacob ran to the doorway with his cake, watching like it was a show.
“Mom, she didn’t even cry. That means she hasn’t admitted her mistake yet!”
He shouted with his mouth full of cream.
Mom turned her head, just in time to see me struggling to get up.
Immediately believing Jacob, she yanked my ear and scolded:
“You still dare act defiant?”
“Am I wrong about you?”
The pain in my ear nearly tore it off, and I begged weakly:
“Mom, I didn’t—”
She sneered at me, her voice even harsher:
“Emily, if this were some new snack you’d never seen before and you were curious, I could understand that.”
“But it’s just chocolate!”
“You were too lazy to open the fridge, too greedy to share, so you stole it all for yourself!”