Since I turned fifteen and finally ground Mum down into letting mebuy myself some court shoes, with a modest 2" heel, I'd practicallylived in stiletto... - essential wear for the shorter woman. These shoes,plain black court shoes, with a tapered four inches of heel, had beenalmost new when the ex had started censoring my wardrobe into the binand I'd hidden them. To slip them on and stand tall made me feel morelike Old Alice. I danced a few, contended steps around my kitchen beforeheading out to. Between Shaheen and the chieftain sat Atto, who elicited more than one snigger around the room as he tried to maneuver his oversized bulk onto a pillow. Shaheen looked a bit pale and fragile, as if he really needed a chair, but his eyes burned fiercely with an inner fire. Yakhir allowed his head a small shake at the vanity of it all, and he wondered, not for the first time, just how his tribe had survived after the Great Burn with such traits in its midst.The chieftain cleared his throat, "This. Now that I was on my own, it was time to celebrate. Dear old mom kept many bottles of cheap vodka at home. I’d developed a taste for it. She couldn’t track how many bottles there were from day to day, let alone how full they had been. Most of the time she was high, or drunk, or preoccupied with fucking the latest “date.” Being hung over most days, I’d barely made it through my last year of high school. But I graduated yesterday, and today I turned eighteen. And Mommy Dearest was out of my life.. Then I said to him in more of a demanding way trying to keep from showing my uneasiness, “Can you let me out!” . Suddenly fear gripped me as he got out of his chair staring at me unhappily as he approached. He reached for the strap of my purse on my shoulder, taking my purse from me and throwing it on the floor before doing the same with my coat. “What do you think you are doing” I said. Then he slapped me hard, “Bitch you say Sir to me when you speak, he demanded. My eyes opened wide and damn.