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you ain’t gon’ remember shit that went down before then. I’m your mother. You bet’ not eva’ lie to me or steal from me. You got that?”
    â€œYes, ma’am,” Secret said, holding her bleeding lip.
    â€œNow go take your ass in the bathroom and clean up for dinner,” Yolanda said as she exited Secret’s room, mumbling under her breath, “You lucky I ain’t knock your muthafuckin’ teeth out lying to me.”
    Secret went into the bathroom, her mother’s words ringing in her head.
    â€œYou bet’ not eva’ lie to me.”
    â€œHuh? What?” Secret was startled, her thoughts from the past returning to the present.
    â€œDidn’t I just say don’t ‘huh’ me?” Yolanda spat as she stood in the bathroom doorway. “Are you pregnant? And you better not lie to me, girl.”
    There was no way Secret wanted to hop on the same merry-go-round she’d ridden her first year in high school when she decided to tell her first and only lie to her mother. So this time she just straight-out told the truth just to get it over with. “Yes, ma’am, I’m pregnant.” She figured now that she was eighteen, legally an adult, how bad could it be telling her mother the truth?

Chapter Eleven
    The loud, almost obnoxious sound coming from Yolanda’s voice box and up her throat ricocheted off the bathroom walls. It took everything in Secret not to just throw her hands over her ears like some four-year-old. She couldn’t lie; Secret expected to have to deal with the loudness of her mother’s mouth, but what she didn’t expect was exactly what was coming out of her mouth.
    Laughter.
    Wiping the residue of vomit from her mouth with the back of her hand, Secret just stood there looking at her mother like she was crazy. That laugh; it wasn’t a happy laugh. To Secret it sounded taunting. She just stood there watching, waiting for the laughter to die down. After what seemed like forever to Secret, it finally did die down.
    â€œWhoooo weeeee!” Yolanda said, holding her stomach. It ached from laughing so hard. “So Little Miss I’m Better Than Everybody Else, I’m Going to Run Off to College and Make Something of Myself done got herself knocked up?”
    Then there it was again, that loud laughter that was agonizing to Secret, not to mention pissing her off now that there were words along with the laughter.
    â€œWhat I tell you?” Yolanda said, “You just like all the rest of us around these parts.” Yolanda raised her hands up and turned full circle until she was facing her daughter again. “You stuck here.” She pointed to Secret’s stomach. “And whatever you carrying in your stomach is stuck here too. This is the life, sweetheart.”
    â€œIt wasn’t the life for Grandma,” Secret was quick to spit. “She didn’t live here.”
    Any smile that had been on Yolanda’s face vanished. “Well, you ain’t Grandma’s daughter. You’re your mother’s child. The only reason why Mama lived where all those good white folks lived was because she went and married that white man after my daddy was killed.”
    â€œGrandpa James wasn’t just some white man. He was a good man. A preacher. He’s the reason why Grandma found Jesus and got saved. It was God’s favor why she went from this ol’ raggedy hood life to the good life.”
    â€œGod favor my ass,” Yolanda huffed. “I don’t know why you put her on some pedestal. Trust me when I tell you back in the day, your grandma was a force.”
    Secret was boiling on the inside as her mother spoke ill of the dead. Secret’s grandmother had been a lifesaver; there to take them in in their time of need. Perhaps Secret needed to remind her mother of that.
    â€œAll I know is that when we lost our house, Grandma was there to take us in,” Secret