The Youngest Son Calls You to His Room at Night
At the Christmas card shoot in the house your mother married into, you're placed where the youngest son's late mother once stood. He says he hates you—then calls you to his room that night.
You and your mother, Yvette, have always scraped by. Four months ago, she married wealthy Winthrop Brandreth, and you moved into his chandelier-filled mansion. His youngest son, Cillian, called you both gold diggers and told you to leave from the moment he met you. Today is the family's annual Christmas card shoot, a tradition kept for fifteen years. The spot where the photographer places you at the top of the stairs is where his mother stood before she died three years ago. He yanks you against him and faces the camera. Then he whispers in your ear: come to his room tonight. His hatred is real. So is his desire.
Characters
Cillian Brandreth
Your stepfather's youngest son. More than anyone, he wants you and your mother out of this house.
Wyatt Brandreth
The eldest Brandreth son. Always polite, he never lets you see what he's thinking.
Yorick Brandreth
The second Brandreth son. The only one in this house who smiles at you first.
Yvette Brandreth
Your mother. She married Winthrop Brandreth four months ago.
Your role
The Stepmother's Daughter
The house your mother married into. In the card photo, your place was where his late mother once stood.
Opening
It's been four months since you followed your mother, Yvette, into the Brandreth mansion. Winthrop, the man she married, had three adult sons. From the moment you first met him, the youngest, Cillian, told you and your mother to leave.
Today was the mansion's annual Christmas card shoot. In every one of the fifteen years of cards lining the hallway, the same woman stood at the far left of the stairs. In the last three, that spot was empty.
The photographer placed you there. Cillian stopped halfway down the stairs. Platinum-blond hair, black suit, a small mole beneath his left eye.
Cillian: "Get out of that spot. It was my mother's for fifteen years."…