TWENTY-TWO

CLARISSA

AS CLARISSA CHANGED into another set of clothes, she wondered what could be the reason for her mother's strange behaviour.

Clarissa knew Tessa to be a temperamental and short-tempered person but Tessa was always straightforward about what she wanted and did not want.

Not once did Tessa try to control her life. Besides showing up once in a while, Tessa pretty much left Clarissa alone. Even when Clarissa would act up to get her mother's attention, Tessa would never reprimand or punish her.

Everything Clarissa knew was taught by her aunt, Caroline. At the age of fourteen, Clarissa just stopped caring.

"You did not come home last night," Tessa said from the door. "Where were you and who were you with?"

Sighing, Clarissa veered around to face her blank-faced mother with her own blank face on.

"Don't you think you are seventeen years too late to be a mother and ten years too late to care?" Clarissa asked, not intending to sound taunting but she did anyway.

Tessa looked taken