“It was a toad. Educational.”

I’d gotten up for water at 2 a.m. The kitchen light was on. Jenna sat at the table, her phone face-down, both hands wrapped around a cold mug of tea. She wasn’t crying, but she was close.

She looked up, wary.

I poured myself a cup and sat down across from her.

“Vividly,” I said, leaning against the counter. “You broke my Lego Death Star.” Step Sis Came to Live With Step Brother to Get ...

She laughed—a short, sharp sound with no humor in it. “Do you ever think about how we used to fight? Like, screaming, throwing-shoes-at-each-other’s-doors fighting?”

And somewhere along the way, I realized I was getting something too. A sister. Not by blood, but by choice. By the wreckage we’d crawled out of together, and the quiet, ordinary days we were building in its place. “It was a toad