Chapter 4: Follow-Through

I drove straight to the salon with Ivo still in the passenger seat.

"Stay in the truck," I said.

"Gladly."

Mom was sweeping hair around her station in a pink smock.

She lit up when she saw me.

"Baby! Sit. Your ends are a crime."

"Mom, you can't invite Zane."

"Sit first. Then yell."

I sat.

She threw a cape around my neck and snapped it shut.

"Why is he coming?" I said to her face in the mirror.

"Because he called, and he was gracious, and I'm not starting a marriage holding grudges against the last one."

She combed out my wet hair.

"Augustin said it was fine."

"Augustin said that?"

"He said, and I quote, 'Bring whoever you like, love.'"

I could picture him saying it while his whole face went careful.

"He's a creep, Mom."

"He's a lot of things. He's not a creep." Snip. "He paid for your braces."

"He paid for my braces so he could put my teeth in his book."

"Ramona."

I wanted to say it.

He sold me.

There's a mark on my wrist with his name in it, and your new husband is a demon, and there's jelly on your ceiling.

I could hear exactly how it would sound in a salon that smelled like peroxide.

She'd book me a therapist before she booked the caterer.

"Just don't let him near me," I said.

"He's coming to a party, not your bedroom." She tilted my chin. "Hold still. You're getting layers."

"I don't want layers."

"You want layers. You just don't know it yet."

The woman at the next chair laughed.

Mom winked at her in the mirror.

"My daughter," she said. "Kills bugs for a living. Won't let me touch her hair since 2019."

"Because of what happened in 2019."

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Stepbrother Is a Demon from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.