Chapter 1 - Sugar on the Marble
The silver edge of the metallic muffin tin scraped across the white marble island.
SCREECH.
Vanessa’s fingers—manicured, sharp, and smelling of artificial lavender—clutched the small shoulder of the sequined dress.
Six-year-old Lily’s blonde braids whipped back and forth as her tiny frame shook with breathless, wet sobs.
The pink sequins on her dress caught the warm recessed kitchen lights, flickering like dying sparks.
Vanessa leaned down until her sharp nose almost touched the child’s tear-stained temple.
"Look at the tin, Lily," Vanessa whispered, her voice tight and dry as parchment.
"Look at what you did to my kitchen."
Two blackened, burnt muffin crusts sat glued to the bottom of the tin, smoking faint white curls into the air.
Vanessa’s short black hair framed her cold, angular jawline as her grip tightened on the child's small collarbone.
Lily’s knees buckled under the weight of her own weeping.
Her small toes, tucked inside silver glitter Mary Janes, scraped against the dark hardwood floor.
Rub.
Rub.
"I... I just wanted to make a star for Daddy," Lily choked out, her child-voice fracturing into tiny pieces.
Vanessa shook her shoulders once, hard enough to make the metal tin rattle against the stone.
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"You are a clumsy, useless little creature," Vanessa hissed.
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