A ripple of fire flashed under the long lashes of her downturned eyes. "Um…excuse me," she said with feigned politeness as she raised her eyes to meet his, "I was never told of any 'curfew', and I naturally assumed that because I paid rent to live here that I was free to come and go as I pleased."

"Is that how you think it works?" he screamed, his bulbous eyes bulging. "You are WRONG! As long as you are a member of this family - "

"Excuse me," she interrupted in the soothing, rational, sugar-coated tone she reserved for hostile clients at work and her father's temper tantrums, "I'm afraid that when you began charging me rent to live here, I became a tenant and ceased to be 'a member of the family'."