I hadn’t heard from my stepdaughter, Hyacinth, in what felt like forever, so when she suddenly invited me to dinner, I thought maybe—just maybe—this was it. The moment we’d finally patch things up.
But nothing could have prepared me for the shock she had waiting for me at that restaurant.
The Call That Caught Me Off Guard
I’m Rufus, 50 years old, and my life has always been… steady. Maybe too steady. I work a quiet office job, live in a modest house, and spend my evenings with a book or the news on TV.
But the one thing I never quite figured out? My relationship with Hyacinth.
She’s my stepdaughter—not by blood, but by marriage. When I married her mother, Lilith, Hyacinth was still a teenager. And from the very beginning, she kept her distance.
