My Stepbrother Came Home for the Anniversary, and I Didn't Know Him novel · Chapter 12 of 24
Chapter 12: The Toast
Sixty people sat under the white tent at four o'clock, and Arvid stood up at the head table with a glass of ginger ale and a card he wasn't going to read.
"Sixteen years ago," he said, "a woman brought me a hotdish and told me I was eating wrong."
The tent laughed, and my mother laughed with it, and I watched her hand find her cardigan button.
I was at the family table with a plate of cold ham in front of me and nothing in my stomach.
Matti sat three chairs down, next to the pole, in a clean white shirt with the sleeves rolled to cover nothing.
He hadn't looked at me since I'd parked.
He had looked at his father twice, and both times he'd smiled.
"I'd like to thank everyone for coming," Arvid said. "And I'd like to thank my son, who drove all night to be here, and my daughter, who..."
He stopped, and I saw him blink, and I saw sixty people see it.
"My stepdaughter," he said, "who has been my daughter for sixteen years."
My throat closed.
I looked at my mother.
She was crying and smiling at the same time, and her eyes met mine, and then they slid away.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of My Stepbrother Came Home for the Anniversary, and I Didn't Know Him are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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