Three years after my mom died, my dad’s new wife treated me like an unwanted guest in my own home. When prom season arrived, she spent hundreds on her daughter and handed me the ugliest dress she could find. She thought the whole school would laugh at me. Instead, she ended the night in tears.Three years after my mother died, our house still felt like it was holding its breath.Dad and I had learned to move through the quiet together, pretending the empty chair at the table wasn’t the loudest thing in the room.Then Dad started dating Alexis, and within four months she and her daughter, Brianna, moved into our home.One of the first things Alexis did was box up every last thing that had belonged to my mother.Brianna was my age, went to my school, and from the very beginning, neither of them liked me. They were discreet about it at first, but got bolder as time passed.

“Brianna, sweetheart, your hair looks gorgeous today,” Alexis said one morning, sliding a plate of pancakes across the counter. reached for the syrup, and Alexis pulled it back an inch. “Emma, you might want to skip that.””Yeah,” Brianna added, “or we’ll need to get a special chair in here for you.”Dad glanced over the newspaper but didn’t say anything. I’d given up on hoping for him to intervene.As prom seasonAt school, it was the same loop on a different stage.Brianna walked the hallway like she owned the place, and crowds parted for her and her friends.I kept my head down and counted the months until graduation.”Three months, Em,” Jenna whispered, bumping my shoulder at our lockers. “Three months and you’re free. Your stepmother won’t be able to touch you anymore.”I smiled, because she was right, and because counting down the days until I left for college was the only thing keeping me upright.