Chapter 1
I Came Home and Found My Entire Bedroom Painted Over… Then My Stepfather Said, “That’s Not What We Agreed.” 😳
I came home from college for fall break expecting my bedroom to look exactly the way I had left it.
Instead, I stopped in the doorway and felt my stomach drop.
My pale blue walls were completely white.
Every drawing I had taped above my desk was gone.
Even the mural I painted with my dad before he died had disappeared under fresh paint.
“Mom!” I shouted.
Denise hurried upstairs, already looking nervous.
“What happened to my room?”
She forced a smile. “Camille, you’re twenty now. I thought you needed something cleaner.”
“You painted over Dad’s mural?”
Her eyes moved away from mine.
“It was time.”
I walked to my empty bookshelf.
“Where are my things?”
“They’re boxed up.”
“Where?”
Before she answered, my stepfather Ray appeared behind her.
He looked into the room and frowned.
“Why is everything still empty?”
Mom spun toward him.
“Ray, not now.”
His face tightened.
“That’s not what we agreed.”
The room suddenly felt cold.
I looked between them.
“What did you agree on?”
Neither answered.
Then I noticed something in the corner that definitely wasn’t mine.
A brand-new crib box.
My hands started shaking.
“Mom, why is there a crib in my bedroom?”
Denise grabbed Ray’s arm.
“Take that downstairs.”
But Ray didn’t move.
Instead, he looked at her and said, “Camille was supposed to stay at school until Thanksgiving.”
I stared at my mother.
“You knew I was coming home today.”
She whispered, “Your plans changed.”
“No. I told you two weeks ago.”
Ray closed his eyes like he had just realized something.
Then my phone buzzed with a message from my aunt Sarah.
Camille, call me before your mother tells you anything about the baby.
I slowly looked at the crib again.
Then at my mother.
“If this room wasn’t being redone for me… who was it for?”
May you like
Mom went completely pale.
And Ray whispered, “Denise, she deserves to know who’s moving in.”
