The scent of his cologne hit her first. It was sharp, expensive, and it clung to the air of the once-familiar living room like a threat, or a promise. Leila watched from the top of the stairs, her knuckles white on the banister, as her mother, Carol, giggled like a schoolgirl, draped over the arm of the man who was now her husband. Stepdaddy. The word tasted sour in her mouth. His name was Jeffery Brin. He was nothing like her soft-spoken, bookish father. Jeffery was all hard lines and predatory grace, a wolf in a tailored suit. His dark hair was swept back, silvering at the temples, and his eyes, when they flickered up and met hers, were the color of a stormy sea. They didn’t smile, even as his lips curved for her mother. They assessed, they catalogued, they claimed. “Leila, sweetheart, come down and say hello properly!” Carol trilled, her voice syrupy with white wine and new love. Leila descended slowly, her short silk robe, a relic from her old life, hanging loosely over her sle
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