Chapter 1: The List on the Table
She wanted two thousand dollars for prom, but I reminded her mother of what she had said to me the day before.
I came home from work that evening and found the kitchen already tense.
The lights were warm over the counters, my wallet sat on the table, and beside it lay an itemized list that someone had printed out — the dress, the hair, the makeup, the limousine.
My stepdaughter stood across from me in her light top, holding her phone, watching us with the careful eyes of a girl who had learned to read a room.
I looked at the list, then I looked at the total.
I sl@pped my hand on the table.
"No!
I'm not paying two thousand dollars for prom."
Her mother turned, furious, as if I were the one being unreasonable.
"She needs the dress, hair, makeup, everything!"
I was tired.
I was tired of being a wallet in one breath and a stranger in the next.
I pointed at her, my voice low and steady.
"Yesterday you told me I'm not her father."
Her face froze.
She opened her mouth, and nothing came out.
Behind her, her daughter lowered her phone and stared at her mother's back with a question growing in her eyes.
---
What is her mother going to say now — and what did the daughter just realize?
May you like
Comment **"NEXT"** if you want Part 2.
👇
