When I arrived, the gates were locked.
Desperate, I crawled through the dog hole by the side of the house—a passage that held bittersweet memories. Whenever I was kicked out, Jameson used to secretly unlock the small metal gate to let me back in.
Over the years, weeds had grown over the hole, but the gate remained ajar, frozen in time from the last time I’d been thrown out.
I snuck into the house and went straight to the room. There it was—my jade pendant, dangling from Yvette’s hand as she toyed with it.
“Yvette, that’s my pendant! Give it back!”
She looked at me with disdain. “You say it’s yours, so it’s yours? I’d say it’s just some trash I picked up.”
“You can’t talk about it that way!” I angrily retorted.
“Oh, I’ll call it trash—and I’ll call you trash too. What can you do about it?” She sneered.
With that, she leaned out the window, holding the pendant precariously.
My heart leapt to my throat. My fists clenched so tightly that my knuckles cracked, but I forced myself to stay calm. I couldn’t risk her damaging it.
Lowering my voice, I pleaded, “Yvette, please. Give it back. I’ll do whatever you want.”
Her lips curled into a triumphant smirk, her eyes sparkling with malice.