Vanessa didn’t want a stepdaughter. She wanted the money—the accounts, the house, the cars. Maya was nothing but an inconvenience in the way of the life Vanessa believed she deserved.
So Vanessa turned Maya’s childhood into something carefully cruel.
Breakfast, lunch, dinner—Maya ate alone.
School—the driver dropped her off and picked her up.
Vanessa never attended a single parent-teacher meeting.
When the school finally called to ask why Maya’s grades were slipping, Vanessa replied flatly, “She’s lazy. Always has been,” and hung up.
The truth was, Maya could barely focus.
Her back hurt so badly she couldn’t sit straight. In class, she leaned sideways in her chair. Other kids laughed. She pressed her lips together so she wouldn’t cry.
It had started eight months earlier.
It was a Saturday. Daniel, her father, was in São Paulo closing a deal. Maya was on the living-room floor, finishing a jigsaw puzzle. She was proud—she’d done all her homework by herself.
“Vanessa, look,” she said, holding up her notebook. “I finished everything.”
Vanessa didn’t look up from her phone. “Great. Now go away.”
“But the teacher said—”