There was no shock on their small faces, no confusion at being spoken to so cruelly by the woman who was supposed to be their soon-to-be stepmother.

They looked conditioned.

They looked like children who had heard this voice many, many times before, and had learned exactly how to brace for it.

And in that single detail, before another word was spoken, I understood that I had been watching for the wrong villain in the wrong direction, and that the terrible thing in my house had a face, and it was not Marisol’s.

Chapter 6 — Conditioned