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.

Camila grinned. “Can we make one with a little dog?”

“Two little dogs,” Mariana said, pouring brightness into her voice. “And a crooked chimney.”

Camila laughed and climbed onto her stool. For seven years, Mariana had built her entire life around that laugh. She had continue reading …