Any time now, Marybeth thought. Anytime now, her father would tell her this was all a bad joke—no, a terrible joke—and they'd laugh about it over coffee after she'd scolded him for making her drive all the way across town from her apartment in Sea Point over a stupid prank. But, a minute passed. The punchline never came. And she knew then that the one person she loved the most in the world, the only person she never thought would do her dirty, had gone and done exactly that."You can't be serious," she said as she collapsed in the worn, rickety chair at the dining table and held her head in her hands, her messy, carrot-coloured hair falling around her freckled face like leaves burning in the autumn sun. Furious didn't even begin to cover how she felt at that moment. She didn't even brush her unruly hair, let alone take a quick shower, because Danica, her stepmom, called at the crack of dawn, wailing about a life and death situation.Now, as Marybeth sat there, scowling at the decades-
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