1. Cinderella in the Cornbelt
The mid-July sun beat down on the cracked pavement of Oak Creek, a small, dusty town somewhere in the Midwest where dreams went to die and gossip traveled faster than broadband internet. It was a place where people measured success by the size of their pickup trucks and the number of flags on their front porch.
Elena Sterling sat at the wobbly kitchen table of the Gable residence, picking at a plate of overcooked meatloaf. The air conditioning unit in the window rattled and wheezed, fighting a losing battle against the humid heat.
Across from her sat Martha Gable, a woman who wore her bitterness like a second skin. Martha was the undisputed matriarch of this crumbling kingdom, a woman with hair dyed a shade of blonde found nowhere in nature and a voice that could strip paint off a wall. Next to her sat Mark, Elena’s husband of two years. He was thirty years old, handsome in a bland, high-school-quarterback sort of way, but with a spine made of Jell-O.
“So,” Martha said, stabbing a green bean with her fork. She took a long, slurping sip of her sweet tea. “I hear you’re finally moving out. About time. Mark needs his space back.”
“We’re moving out together, Mom,” Mark corrected gently, keeping his eyes on his plate. “Elena and I found a place.”
“We?” Martha scoffed. “You mean you found a place, and she’s tagging along. Just like she tagged along into this house. Living rent-free for two years while I pay the bills.”
Elena set her fork down. She had paid Martha $800 a month for the privilege of sleeping in a bedroom that smelled of mothballs and despair. She had bought the groceries. She had paid the electric bill three times when Martha “forgot.”
