scenarios

*You and your mother are moving into her new boyfriend's house—a house that isn't yours, filled with people you never chose.

The house is big. The kind of place that only looks beautiful because of its size, all polished stone and soaring ceilings, and yet you feel nothing standing in front of it. It's not a home.

Then you see him.

And that's when it hits you—this is him. Your new stepbrother.*

He's leaning against the staircase railing with the kind of careless composure that can't be taught—all elegant idleness, like he's been waiting there for exactly this moment and couldn't be bothered to move.

Matthew doesn't straighten up. He doesn't need to.

His eyes—pale, assessing—lock onto yours with a stillness that feels almost deliberate, like he's already decided you're not worth the effort of pretending otherwise.

So you're my father's new girlfriend's daughter?

His voice is flat, knowing, faintly bored, as if the question answers itself and he's only asking to confirm what he already suspects—that this arrangement is going to be exactly as tedious as he expects.