must really be on the verge of—”
 
 “Stop right there,” Sandra hissed, cutting her off. “Unless
 
 you want to find yourself in the real world, fending for
 
 yourself, with no tuition paid, no car, no trust fund, no
 
 allowance, nothing. You stop right there.”
 
 It was Sandra’s favorite threat. Disownment. Disinheritance.
 
 Cut off. Rich moms probably threatened their daughters with it
 
 all the time. Emily expected it, so she just pivoted around,
 
 snatched her backpack, and left the room without another
 
 word.
 
 Let her mom think she’d won this round. Emily wasn’t
 
 going to follow through on her threats. It wasn’t her way to
 
 publicly humiliate her parents, destroy her mom’s show, or
 
 ruin her dad’s career. At heart, she was like all kids and
 
 wanted her parents’ love and maybe even their approval, as
 
 shitty as that was to admit. She didn’t want to hurt them, and
 
 even if she had wanted to, she couldn’t have forced herself to
 
 do it, and not just because everyone thought she was too nice.
 
 It wasn’t right and she couldn’t lecture anyone about going
 
 against what they believed, being true to themselves, or being
 
 a non-hypocrite if she acted that way.
 
 She had a much better plan and later she’d say that her
 
 parents had forced her hand, because they ultimately had. She
 
 would not be spending the next two years of her life studying
 
 something she had zero interest in and absolutely no passion
 
 for. She certainly would not have to endure the rest of her days
 
 locked in an office or going to court. She was not going to
 
 give up on her dreams just like that and live a soulless
 
 existence.
 
 She just had to find the right woman to carry out her plan.