Elsa Jean had always been the quiet one, the observer. She watched the way her stepfather moved through the house, the careful distance he kept, the way his hand sometimes lingered on a doorframe. She watched her mother smile through the strain of a blended family, pretending the jagged edges fit. And she watched Hollie Mack—confident, careless Hollie—drift through life like it owed him nothing.
“We’re not stepsiblings, Hollie,” Elsa said, her voice breaking. “We’re cousins. And your real father? He’s the reason my real father left.” -FamilyStrokes- Elsa Jean- Hollie Mack - Sleepi...
He laughed. Not cruel—relieved.
Hollie’s eyes snapped open. For a second, he was just a scared boy. Then the mask slid back. “What are you talking about?” Elsa Jean had always been the quiet one, the observer
She should have gone to bed. Instead, she knelt beside him, listening. The house was a hollow drum. Her phone buzzed—a message from her mother, stuck at a late shift: “Make sure Hollie’s okay. He had a fight with his dad again.” And your real father