Round 4: Li-Brennan

Lacey Li and her boyfriend Silas Brennan are Adults. Their daughter Phoebe Li is a Child. Lacey’s daughter Winter Li is a Child.

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Phoebe didn’t know why Winter was so unhappy all the time. Their mom was fun, even if she could act weird sometimes. She made everything seem beautiful and romantic, and the way she talked about great art always made Phoebe want to rush to the museum to see it all for herself. And Phoebe’s dad was loving and caring, even if he could get too critical sometimes and was never home at night.

Winter didn’t know how Phoebe could be so naive. Just because their mom and Silas were nice to her didn’t mean they were nice to Winter – couldn’t Phoebe hear the way they talked to her all the time? And it wasn’t just Winter – couldn’t Phoebe see how mean Silas was to their mom sometimes?

But Winter wasn’t as angry as she used to be. She was getting used to her life as it was. She just spent as little time around her mom and Silas as possible, which wasn’t that much different from when they lived in the park except that now she had a real bed and real food. And she still had Phoebe, who was fun to hang out with despite her frustratingly naive attitude. School had become a refuge for her, too, and somewhere along the line she had become an A student.

Iris was in high school now, and looked more glamorous than Winter could ever hope to be, but on the inside she was still the same old Iris, and her friendship with Winter was stronger than ever.

Winter still liked to let Phoebe tag along with her when she went somewhere with Iris. The one problem was that Phoebe would talk to everyone who looked even remotely friendly. Winter tried to get across the idea that some people were dangerous, but Phoebe just didn’t get the concept.

Winter’s mom did bother to bake her a birthday cake, at least. That was something. Winter didn’t have a real birthday party – the only person she really wanted to invite was Iris, and Iris couldn’t even make it. But everyone stood around together watching her blow out the candles, and Silas had even gotten confetti from somewhere, and for a few moments they actually felt like a real family.

Now that she was a teen, Winter didn’t see any more reason to put up with Silas. She went on the offensive, giving back all the abuse he had heaped on her since she had moved in with him. She had suffered through enough; now it was time to make him as miserable as he had made her. Phoebe, caught between the two, didn’t know what to do. Making peace between them was clearly out of the question.

Winter’s feelings about Silas were validated when he brought home a woman named Kaley one day and didn’t even try to hide the fact that they were more than friends. He had no problem flirting with her right in front of Lacey. It wasn’t even a one-time thing – Kaley started coming over two or three days a week.

Lacey was devastated. For years, the epic romance she had imagined between herself and Silas had been the foundation of her life. Now it was all crumbling down around her. For days, then weeks, she shuffled around the house like a ghost, spending hours watching TV and then retreating back to the bedroom to cry under the covers.

Even Phoebe couldn’t deny what was going on this time. Suddenly she felt like she didn’t know her father at all. But she didn’t talk about it – not to Winter, not to anyone. She treated her father the same way she always had. This wasn’t who he really was, she knew. Soon enough this would all go away and everything would be back to normal.

Silas’s unfaithfulness scared Winter more than she let on. As much as she hated him, she knew that if her mom ever left him, they would be back to living in the park again.

She took a lot of it out on her mother, even though she knew that wasn’t fair. Or maybe it was fair. After all, if her mom hadn’t gotten them into this situation – if she hadn’t lost their house, if she hadn’t fallen in love with Silas, if she could just hold down a job – everything would be okay.

Just like Winter was done with putting up with things she didn’t have to put up with from her mom and Silas, she was done lying to herself. She was ready to admit what she probably should have already suspected – that her feelings for Iris went beyond friendship.

But when she broached the subject with Iris, Iris made it very clear that she wasn’t interested. Winter wasn’t just humiliated – being rejected by Iris meant possibly losing her oldest and closest friend, and the one person other than Phoebe who was keeping her stable. And even if she and Iris managed to stay friends after this, they would never be close in the way Winter wanted.

Winter almost thought Kaley was gloating.

When Lacey emerged from her depression, the one thing she knew for sure was that her feelings for Silas hadn’t changed. He was her prince, her destined true love, and no setback could drive them apart. Besides, hadn’t she come close a couple of times to crossing the same like that Silas had crossed?

She decided she needed to take a drastic step. So one day, she asked Silas to marry her – and to everyone’s surprise, Silas accepted.