Stepmother 5 [work] May 2026

Iris smiled. It was the most terrible thing Clara had ever seen—not because it was cruel, but because it was sad. “Then the house takes something else. Something you haven’t offered.”

Clara stood in the hallway, the slip trembling in her hand. The grandfather clock at the bottom of the stairs began its warning chime. Four. Four-thirty. Four-forty-five. stepmother 5

“Then you know what to give me.”