Still Yours

Prologue

FOUR YEARS EARLIER… PRETTI PHOENIX. LOS ANGELES, CA

Pretti sat in her room, waiting patiently for her parents, Ricky and Michelle, to walk in.

They had been gone for three days, and she finally got a phone call from her father saying they were on their way and that they needed to talk to her.

They left her with a fridge full of food and a couple of hundred dollars, but she had no use for the money; she was only nine years old.

She sat brushing her doll’s hair when her parents walked into her room.

When she smiled at them, they smiled back.

Pretti looked at her mother but could hardly recognize her.

She had never seen her mother cry, and she was dressed unusually.

Michelle was draped in a white cotton robe with a white scarf covering her beautiful brown hair.

Michelle walked up to her daughter and held her tight. Then she walked her over to the bed, and they sat down while her dad continued to stand in the doorway. Tears began to stream down Michelle’s face as she gazed at her daughter. Pretti wasn’t smiling anymore. Now she was worried.

“Baby girl, we love you so much. Our God has invited us to our mission, and in order for us to obey, we have to leave you behind.” Michelle wept as she held her daughter.

“What do you mean? You can’t leave me!” Pretti’s heart began to race as she smiled nervously. She knew they had to be joking.

“I’m serious, baby. We’re going to drop you at the police station, and they will find you a good home for now.” Michelle gazed at her.

“But what am I going to do without you?” Pretti whined. She didn’t want to be separated from her family. She loved them.

“You’re going to go off and be a successful cosmetologist like you always talk about.

You do great with Mommy’s manicures, and believe it or not, Daddy loves your edge-up with my clippers.

You’re going to find a good family that will guide you through life.

You have the talent; just stay focused, baby.

” Ricky tried to assure his baby, but Pretti still didn’t understand.

“But I want to go with you guys! I don’t want to live with anyone else!”

Ricky was getting impatient. They had three hours to get their daughter out of their lives because they had joined a cult.

They were broke and desperate, so they figured this was their only way to go from rags to riches, but the rules were clear: no children allowed.

There were fifty people in this cult, and they had all given up their kids.

The cult had been around secretly for ages.

People lived by their code, and they definitely got the money they were promised years later.

“We will look for you when you are older, and we will be in a better position to be your parents. But right now, we can’t. Pack your things; we will meet you in the car in thirty minutes,” Ricky stated impatiently.

Her parents walked out of the room, leaving her crying and feeling like a burden. She wanted to be a part of their new life and be happy just like them, but that wasn’t happening.

An hour later, she was sitting in front of a police station five cities away.

She told the officers everything Ricky and Michelle told her, and they couldn’t believe it.

After trying to contact her parents with no success, they were forced to take Pretti to an orphanage, where she was welcomed with open arms. She liked the staff at her new residence.

They went to church; she could still go to her old school and make friends.

Everyone there had a different story, and they all stuck together.

Pretti waited to get adopted, but as she spent years in the orphanage, she got used to being there and didn’t want to be adopted.

She liked helping at the orphanage. They let her do hair and nails and cut the boys’ hair at a young age.

Living in the orphanage made Pretti look at life differently.

She realized blood didn’t make you family and hated her parents for leaving her, feeling like she could never forgive them.

She was treated better in the orphanage and was thankful her parents gave her away.

She told herself that when she became an adult, she would open a beautiful barber and nail shop with only women workers and open a group home.

Pretti never wanted anyone to feel like they didn’t have a family, so she felt it was her duty to add another center to her community.

However, after being an orphan and living in a small group home for kids for five years, she was finally adopted by a woman named Rhonda.

When Rhonda first came in and said she wanted to adopt her, Pretti thought she was a nice woman.

She wasn’t too old, and she dressed really fashionable, but once Pretti got settled in, she changed.

“Now, I don’t know what you’re used to, but this ain’t no kick it spot.

You’re thirteen years old, so you’re the oldest in the house.

I need you to cook, clean, and watch these kids for me.

You’re gonna be the big sister of the house, but don’t get that shit twisted…

I run this house. I call the shots, so nothing goes down until I approve it.

I don’t want no company, and I want breakfast and dinner made at a certain time.

Also, I want all the bathrooms cleaned every day, and since you cut and do hair, you will be doing that around here too. You got that, little girl?”

Pretti looked at Rhonda with her innocent expression. She didn’t mind helping around the house, but she felt like some of those responsibilities were for an adult.

“Ms. Rhonda, I don’t think I can do all that. What are you going to do around here?” Pretti asked softly.

Before she knew it, Rhonda had slapped her so hard in the face that she fell to the floor. Stunned by what Rhonda just did, Pretti laid on the floor holding her face while looking up at Rhonda, pitifully.

“That’s what the fuck I do around here! I’m gonna slap you every time you talk back to me. Now get settled, then come help me with dinner so I can show you where everything is!” Rhonda stormed out, slamming the door.

Pretti sat there for at least ten minutes trying to get her thoughts together. She couldn’t believe Rhonda had put her hands on her, which made her nervous. She wanted to gather her things and run away but had nowhere to go or anyone to call. Therefore, she decided to stay and make it work.

From that day on, she did everything Rhonda said.

That was the last time she hit her, because she did everything, she was told ten times better than Rhonda asked.

After a few months, Pretti got used to Rhonda and her ways.

She cooked, she cleaned, and she did hair.

Rhonda even had her give her a cut every time she did hair in her home, but Pretti didn’t mind because it was rare when she cut hair at Rhonda’s.

She also took an interest in boys, which kept her mind off the mistreatment Rhonda gave her.