Chapter 1

The air in our small house was thick with the smell of pine needles and silent anger. It was Christmas morning, but the only thing under the tree was a thick layer of dust.

My mother, Brenda, was gone. She' d left weeks ago, but today felt final. A paralegal, a woman in a stiff gray suit that looked out of place in our worn-out living room, had just left. She handed my father, Mark, a stack of divorce papers. He didn' t even look at them, just tossed them onto the coffee table.

The silence was broken by the crinkle of wrapping paper. My father pushed a large, brightly wrapped box toward my younger brother, Matthew.

"Here you go, son. Merry Christmas."

Matthew, the golden child, tore it open. Inside was a brand-new video game console, the one all the kids at school wanted. His face lit up.

I watched, my hands clenched in the pockets of my thin sweater. I had my own gift for my father, something I hoped would earn me a smile, a single word of praise. I pulled out my report card.

"Dad, look."

My voice was a small, hopeful squeak. I held it out to him. Straight A' s. Every single class.

He snatched it from my hand. His eyes scanned the grades, and for a second, I thought I saw a flicker of something. But then his face hardened, his lips curling into a sneer.

"Straight A' s? You think this makes you special? Do you know how much school supplies cost? How much it costs just to feed you?"

He tore the report card in half, then in half again. The pieces of paper, my hard work, fluttered to the floor like dead leaves.

My paternal grandmother, who had been sitting silently in her armchair, stood up. She walked over to me, her face a mask of disapproval.

"You' re a bad omen, Jocelyn. Just like your mother."

Her hand cracked across my cheek. The sting was sharp, but the coldness in her eyes was what really hurt. I stood there, frozen, as she turned her back on me and went to admire Matthew' s new toy.