Todos os capítulos de HIS CHUBBY STEPDAUGHTER: Capítulo 61 - Capítulo 69

MICHELA;By the time we reached the kitchen, Myla had already claimed a stool and was swinging her legs hard enough to make the base tap against the cabinet. Celeste moved around the room with easy familiarity, opening drawers, finding bowls, speaking to the little girl in a soft voice that never quite matched the sharpness I kept sensing underneath. Celeste was hiding under a facade I couldn't quite place or be wary of.The ice cream was vanilla with a thin ribbon of caramel. I ate a few spoonfuls because I had said I would. It was colder than it should have been on a normal ice-cream day. Skye settled near my feet again, chin on the tile, eyes half closed. Every ordinary detail in the room made the earlier conversation feel stranger, like it had happened under brighter light than this.Celeste did not push further. That almost bothered me more. She let the silence sit, only smiling when she met my eyes. My laptop remained closed on the living room couch, the unfinished post waitin

MICHELA;It was Sunday morning. I had no idea when I finally fell asleep. When I opened my eyes, the duvet had been carefully pulled over my legs and the curtains were drawn, leaving the room dim and quiet. I sat up slowly. The other side of the bed was empty.Miles was gone.Anger rose in me in a slow, heavy wave. Last night he had fallen asleep while I was still aching and restless beside him. I had let it go because he looked exhausted from wherever it was he went to, and because the friction between us already felt thin enough to tear. I had told myself not to nag or push so hard. He already had a lot to deal with, but this morning I had still hoped to turn over and find him there. Instead there was only the cool space where his body should have been.I got out of bed and checked the bathroom. Empty. A few drops of water on the sink told me he had already washed up and left. I shut the door harder than necessary and walked toward the heavy curtains. The remote sat on the wall,

MICHELA; I jerked up, my heart racing. The dream was still right there… Myron coming too close, that ugly smile, the feeling that he was about to grab my neck. I jerked up so hard my hand grabbed the sheets. Sweat sat on my forehead. The sound I made was enough. Miles turned fast from the chair by the dresser and came straight over. “Are you okay, princess?” He put a hand on my shoulder, sitting on the edge of the bed. I looked around, still shaky. For a second, I couldn't tell where I was. “It’s this house,” I cried. My voice came out thin, eyes shut tight. “It’s scary here, Miles.” I grabbed his shirt with both hands and pressed my face into his chest. “Let’s just go home.” His arms went around me right away. One hand rubbed my back while the other held my head against him. “You’re safe, baby,” he said, patting me softly. “We’re already home. We got back yesterday morning, remember.” I pulled back and looked again. The familiar soft yellow lamp came into view, the de

MICHELA; Early morning light filled the bookstore. It came through the front windows in bright strips, landing across the tables and the polished floor. The waitress, Sophie, moved around the café section with a cloth in her hand, fixing chairs that were already straight and talking the whole time. She was filling me in on everything that happened while Miles and I were away… the supplier who had brought in the wrong coffee order, a customer who argued about a bookmark for ten minutes, a little boy who tried to rearrange the children’s shelf by color. I laughed all through her stories, and kept my eyes on the laptop. I was finishing the blog post Celeste had interrupted back at the mansion. I paused, read through the lines and everything was perfect, even more appealing than the first one I had posted. I read it through again. A quiet kind of pride settled in my chest, a satisfied smile rose on my face. Then I made a mental note to add a selfie of mine to the post.