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her. A week ago, it would have made her beg. But something inside her had now hardened into a shape she did not recognize and did not fear.
My husband took my stepdaughter to Christmas with his ex and told me I wasn’t her real mother—so I chose myself, walked away, and rebuilt a life they never saw coming.
Mariana looked back at him. “I’m leaving on the twenty-third.”
He seemed surprised. “Leaving?”
