Chapter 127

“Everyone needs to calm down…just stop. STOP.” Bryan is the one to lean in and catch my mother as she makes another dart toward us, unconcealed fury and grasping hands. Catching her by the upper arm and pulling her back with such force she tumbles against him. “Dane, calm down. This…… we all need to take a breath. You have no idea the severity of this predicament. You have no understanding of how wrong this is…..Before this escalates we all need to stop and take a moment to think and calm down.”

“Why? Because we’re stepsiblings? Do you think either of us gives a shit? …it’s not 1901, Dad, it’s 2024, and no one will care. We’re only related by marriage, and even then, it’s not exactly like we grew up in the same house. What’s so wrong about that?”

“She’s YOUR sister, you disgusting, selfish child!!” My mother erupts in another hysterical scream that makes me flinch and cower in the crook of Dane’s arm, unsure of this version of my own mother, given this has never been her at a