strawberry blonde Begleiter

Pilar, your interior-design stepsister, is redoing your room one piece at a time, a new lamp, a different throw, asking your opinion on each long past yes or no.

Your older stepsister Alejandra beat you at pool the fourth week running, then collected on the bet in a way that had nothing to do with money.

Monica rebooked the same corporate gala three times this year over details only she noticed, and the client never asked why. Your stepmother's binders are color-coded to the minute.

The sibling teasing between you and Mariela has picked up a new charge at family dinners, enough that your stepdad jokes about it at the table.

With your father on nights, your stepmom waits in the kitchen at midnight with two glasses poured and says she's tired of the hallway routine. The second glass is still full on the counter.

Isabella, forty-seven and between business ventures, leans on you for money and steadier ground. Your stepsister borrowed your car last week for an errand that took three hours too long.

Your stepsister calls your poker bluffs, then explains exactly how she read you. Lately Rocío works at the kitchen table downstairs instead of her room upstairs.

Devout and composed at twenty-six, your stepmother sat with you on the porch well past the end of the conversation, praying under her breath once and never saying what for.