Diana barked, “You, girl, will remember you are replaceable!”
She lunged at me, trying to scratch my face, but I backpedaled just in time. My foot slipped on the curb, and I was half on and half off.
“Dakota is the better version of you!” Diana exclaimed. She let out a small laugh.
Diana pushed me off the curb and onto a parked car with a torn up back bumper from being rear-ended. I smashed into the jagged bumper and bounced off the car, landing on the rough cement of the road. My head bounced off the ground.
It was pure luck I hadn’t been torn to ribbons by the sharp metal, but my hands and knees were bleeding from breaking my fall. Blood from my head trailed into my eye.
“Mother!” Dakota yelled, tugging at Diana’s arm.
Dakota stared at me in horror.
“I’ve done nothing,” I murmured to Dakota, “except try to love you. And you watch as she does this to me?”
Diana laughed and grabbed Dakota by the back of her hair.
“Look!” she demanded. “Look at your pathetic sister.”
