Smokeshow

Hughes Farm was the largest racing-horse establishment in the South. The family that owned it was known to be wealthy, powerful, arrogant, and terrifying. My first encounter with them didn’t prepare me for all that was to come. I don’t think anything truly could have. Growing up with only my father and brother hadn’t been easy, but we’d had each other. Losing them was the hardest thing I’d ever faced. It had made the times we went without food, electricity, or even shelter seem insignificant in comparison. It's when a woman, claiming to have been my mother’s best friend, arrives to take me home with her that questions begin to surface. My father had rarely spoken of my mother. She’d died when I was a toddler. Having no other option, I trust this stranger and am thrown into a world of mansions, racing horses, extravagance, and him. It’s true that there's a thin line between love and hate. But there's an even thinner line between truth and lies.