Stepfather I've Sinned
“Stepfather, forgive me, I have sinned!”
Ceciliah and her twin brother were raised under the strict care of the man who replaced their father when they were thirteen. To the world, he was a respectable stepfather, disciplined, distant, and devoted to their ailing mother. To Ceciliah, he was a presence she learned to obey, not understand.
When her mother dies of cancer shortly after Ceciliah turns nineteen, the fragile family remains intact in name only. Grief rots the house from the inside. Boundaries blur and silence becomes dangerous.
One drunken night, Ceciliah tries to do the right thing, helping her stepfather to bed, telling herself it’s only kindness, only duty. The next morning, she wakes up in his room, in his bed, with memories fractured by alcohol and fear.
What happened that night is a sin no one wants to confess.
As guilt, suspicion, and unspoken desire coil tighter around the surviving family, Ceciliah must confront a terrifying question: Was she a victim, a participant, or something far more unforgivable?
