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  I snatched a knife out of a kitchen drawer and then stalked over to where Tony lay sprawled on the couch, passed out. I grasped him firmly between the legs and put the cold steel where it would hurt him the most. His eyes blinked open and he gaped up at me.

  ‘You and your friend are getting out of my apartment right now!’ I hissed, barely hearing my own voice with the blood pounding in my ears, barely recognising my own voice with the blood pounding in my veins. ‘I don’t ever want to see you, or any of your “friends”, ever again! Understand?’

  Tony swallowed, the blade of the knife pressing against his most valued bit of flesh. I was hitting the bastard below the belt, where he deserved it.

  He nodded, and I eased up on the cutting pressure, drawing my hands back.

  Tony instantly flung his hands up and grabbed my neck, choking me. ‘You stupid bitch!’ he wailed. ‘You think you can tell me what to do? After all I’ve done to you?’ He shook me, his eyes wide and wild, mouth spitting.

  I dropped the knife back into position. My voice now was as cold and cutting as that blade, despite Tony’s squeezing hands. ‘If you stay, Tony, some night, one night, when you’re passed out like you were just now, I’ll be back with this knife, and I won’t bother to warn you about what’s going to happen. I’m going to do it. So help me God!’

  His hands loosened on my neck, his eyelids fluttering and his Adam’s apple bobbing. He saw in my eyes, and heard in my voice, that I meant exactly what I’d said. Angela was finally standing up for herself.

  Tony cleared out. And I cleaned up – my apartment and my life.

  I borrowed the money from Nicole to pay my back rent and apologised to all of my neighbours and Henry. I got my job back at the veterinary clinic, along with a second job waitressing at night, so that I could save up for veterinary school. And I reconnected with Jason’s family, who were only too happy to welcome me back again.

  It’s not easy. You can have all the friends and family in the world, all the right support systems in place, but in the end you still have to rely on yourself – me, myself and I. If you can get along with them, have confidence in them, push them to achieve, then you can accomplish almost anything. The three of us have never worked, or lived, so well together before.

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  A Mischief Collection

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