Ivy Butera is treated like a servant in her own household, by her step-father and step-sisters. And even after managing to escape the household, Ivy has a horrid life.
Sabrina Carpenter finds her one night, in a scary situation, and remembers her br...
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Ivy and Morgan Butera only had each other. Everyone knew that.
Every person in town knew it. Little Ivy, however, was beloved by the neighborhood. They'd cared for her since the moment a young Morgan moved into town, a three-year-old Ivy on her hip. Ivy and Morgan were beyond lucky that their neighbors were more than happy to help out with their situation. Morgan became a single mother at the age of nineteen, her parents throwing her out the moment she fell pregnant. It took her three whole years to find a community as welcome as this one.
Morgan never talked about Ivy's father. She did know who he was, but she never spoke of him. Morgan also worked a lot, which left poor Ivy without her mother often. The neighbors were kind enough to watch her, though.
Ivy knew that their situation was not a normal one. She noticed that other children had two parents, and some even had siblings. She noticed that other children had bigger, nicer homes than the one she and her mother lived in. The more she saw these other children, the more she knew.
Everyone in the neighborhood knew that the mother-daughter duo only had each other, but they never made them feel different for it. They embraced them and made them feel as loved as possible. Ivy Butera, despite her differences, lived a happy life.
Until her mother got married to her step-father.
At first, Ivy was excited when her mother told her that she would be getting a father figure in the house. Her neighbor, Eva, who was watching her that day, told her that Morgan would likely be able to stay home from work more often now that there would be a second income coming into the home. Ivy was overjoyed that her mom would be with her more. She also found out that her mom's new husband had two daughters and she would get to have sisters .
At ten years old– ten lonely years– Ivy would have siblings, like some of the other children in her town. She never got to experience parties and events with siblings. She never got to experience any of that at all . She didn't have friends her age. If anything, her friends were the other moms of the neighborhood that watched her after school.
Now, that would be changing. She would have sisters now.
Of course, they were not going to be her real sisters– they would not be connected by blood at all– but they would be her step-sisters, and that was enough for her.
Her mother and her new husband were eloping, having a private ceremony, so Ivy had to wait patiently at home while they got married and then picked up the girls. She had met Christopher, Morgan's partner, a few times, but those were all brief meetings.
She stood near the window, waiting for the car to pull up in the driveway, where her mother, her step-father, and step-sisters would step out of.
"Do you think he'll like me?" Ivy spoke softly to Eva. "My step-dad, I mean."
