The ballroom was tense. Linda, my dad’s wife, sat smirking while sweet Grandma stood at the podium, hurt and confused. My brother Jacob, tense and furious, ignored Linda and focused on Grandma and Dad. Linda brushed it off as a joke, but it was too late.
Jacob stormed the head table, seized the mic, and declared that today wasn’t just a wedding—it was time for the truth. He reminded everyone how Grandma had raised them after their mother “died.” Then he revealed that the story was a lie: their biological mother hadn’t died—she gave them up.
The room went silent as Jacob pointed at Linda. She was their real mother.
Suddenly everything made sense: Linda’s resentment toward Grandma, her cruelty, her bitterness. Grandma wept. Dad crumbled. And Linda—our cruel stepmother—looked broken, regretful. On what was supposed to be a happy day, Jacob shattered our family’s world and exposed the truth we never saw coming.