Forbidden Pleasures
Stepfather’s Secret Obsession 12
Role Play
Anna’s POV
The picnic had been a slow-motion car crash of emotions. Every polite smile from Jake had been like a match struck in a room full of gasoline, and Mark had been the one holding his breath, waiting to explode. The drive home had been suffocatingly quiet, the kind of silence that rings in your ears until you want to scream.
Mom, blissfully unaware of the war being waged beneath the surface, had gone to bed the moment we stepped through the front door. The sun had drained her, and she retreated to the master bedroom with a tired smile, leaving the house to fall into a heavy, expectant stillness.
I fled to my room, the walls of the hallway feeling like they were shrinking. My heart was a frantic drum in my chest. I
