All Chapters of My stepdad's fantasy: Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

Three weeks later,life didn't explode which honestly felt suspicious because after Mom's letter, everything continued normally,work,groceries,snowstorms with sofia learning that "no" was apparently a personal challenge rather than a boundary it was a normal life,the kind I had once thought we would never get.It was a Thursday afternoon when everything changed yet again I was in the kitchen trying to convince Sofia that crayons belonged on paper and not the walls when the apartment buzzer rang and I glanced at the clock and it was still 2:17 p.m and Julian was still at work which means whoever that is , it's definitely not Julian and I wasn't expecting anyone,the buzzer rang againSofia immediately pointed toward the door."Dada!""No, sweetheart."Probably a delivery,I pressed the intercom button."Hello?"A woman's voice answered."Hi. Is Julian Reyes home?"I felt sick as my heart dropped go my stomach not because of what she said but due to how she said it rather too comfortabl

Nobody spoke,the whole apartment looked as if it was shrinking around us and right outside the the apartment snow drifted lazily past the windows as if the world had decided nothing extraordinary was happening inside the housemy entire reality had shifted yet again .Ava sat motionless on our couch, tears streaking silently down her face with Her daughter leaned against her shoulder, confused by the adults whose expressions had suddenly become frightening,Julian hadn't moved since he just stood exactly where he had been since dropping his briefcase and hiis eyes never left Ava even minne never left the little girl,not because I still thought she was his daughter but because she just walked into our lives carrying another secret she never asked to carry,Finally Julian spoke after what felt like forever,"What did Camila leave?"His voice was calm,actually it was weirdly too calm,the kind of calm that only happened when he was forcing himself to stay in control,Ava looked toward the chil

The first page trembled in my hands.Not because the warehouse was cold bcause it was her handwriting every curve of every letter carried me back to childhood,birthday cards tucked beneath pillows there were notes inside lunchboxes,Tiny reminders that she loved md and for a long moment, I couldn't make myself read,Julian stood beside me without saying a word and finally, I unfolded the letter and it readMy dearest Lila,If you're reading this, it means I am no longer here to tell you these things myself and that is my greatest regret ,there are mistakes in life that happen in a single moment but mine took years a tear rolled down my cheek before I reached the second paragraph yoou spent most of your life believing I always knew the right thing to doI didn't and it was because i was frightened far more often than I ever admitted After your father died, I convinced myself that being strong meant carrying every burden alone. I thought if I protected you from the truth, I could protect

The night before Emma’s first day of school, I barely slept I lay in bed staring at the ceiling while Julian breathed steady beside me, one arm thrown across my stomach like an anchor , every time I closed my eyes I saw flashes of the old house the hidden cameras, the blackmail videos, the desperate escape with baby Sofia in my arms now here we were, years later, about to send the little girl Julian’s ex had used as a weapon into the world like it was the most normal thing in the world,Emma had come into our lives through pain Julian’s ex had shown up one day with the quiet, wide eyed child, trying to use her as leverage for money and revenge and when the plan fell apart and the woman abandoned her, we could have walked away,Instead we chose her we brought her home and made her ours in every way that mattered and since then we have known nothing but peace ,Emma brings a different kind of peace to us and I am definitely living for it ,Sofia, our biological daughter, had been born in the

The morning after the snowstorm brought a blinding, brilliant white light through the floor to ceiling windows of our Chicago apartment the city was still half buriedwith snows the streets was quiet below, but inside, the radiators hummed a steady, comforting rhythm I had woken up before the girls did, and trust me in this house that's a rare occurrence,Julian was still asleep, his face buried in the crook of my neck, one heavy leg thrown over mine to keep me anchored to him even in his sleep, he held me like he was afraid the wind would blow the door open and carry me away ireached out, my fingers tracing the sharp, familiar line of his jawline, down to the small scar near his chin a souvenir from the night we tore the servers out of the walls during our escape just then my mind drifted back to Julian's quiet question on the couch from the night before"You ever regret it? Any of it? The way your mom's secrets almost destroyed us before they saved us?"I looked toward the closet, wh