“Now you’ll never marry my son!” my mother-in-law laughed, setting my wedding dress on fire. I wiped my tears, smiled coldly, and said, “Enjoy destroying that dress, because the wedding was never the real trap.” Her face went completely pale when I made one quick phone call…

Cleveland, the rental car smelling faintly of stale coffee and adrenaline, Jason reached across the center console and intertwined our fingers. “We are actually engineering a new family,” he marveled. “We’re building it from scratch.”

“We are drafting the blueprints,” I corrected him gently. “The construction takes a lifetime.”

Chapter Seven: The Ecology continue reading …