“No… no,” I whispered again and again.
Then I heard her voice.
“Oh. You found it.”
Stephanie stood in the doorway, wearing a smug smile. Her voice was sickly sweet. “I warned you not to be so stubborn.”
I turned slowly, shaking. “You… did this?”
She stepped inside, looking at me like I was something unpleasant. “I couldn’t let you humiliate us. What were you thinking? You were going to show up looking like a ghost from the bargain bin.”
“It was my mom’s,” I choked. “It’s all I have left of her.”
She rolled her eyes. “Now, I’m your mother! Enough with this obsession! I gave you a brand-new designer gown. One that actually belongs in this century.”
“I don’t want that dress,” I whispered.
She loomed over me. “You’re not a little girl anymore. It’s time to grow up and stop playing pretend. You’ll wear what I choose, smile for pictures, and stop acting like this house belongs to a dead woman.”
Her words hit like slaps.
Then she turned and walked out, her heels echoing down the hallway like gunshots.
