My Stepdaughter Calls Me Mom to My Face, Then Calls Me Her Stepmom Online

In the third month after my mom remarried, I came across a short video.

It had 2.3 million views and 180,000 likes.

The title read: [Stepmom is pretending to be nice again. Let’s see what she’s up to today.]

In the video, a middle-aged woman wearing a floral apron was cooking in the kitchen. Her spatula flipped through the air, and six plates were laid out on the counter.

The caption read: [Ever since my dad remarried, my stepmom has been making huge dinners every day. Think she’s just a good wife? Don’t make me laugh. She’s only trying to get my dad’s attention, afraid he’ll kick her out.]

The comments exploded.

[Classic manipulative stepmom.]

[She’s probably putting on an act for the house and retirement benefits.]

[Poor blogger, getting stuck with a stepmother like that.]

I watched it three times.

The first time, I thought the middle-aged woman’s silhouette looked familiar.

The second time, I recognized the apron: blue with floral prints, with a little hole on the right pocket from an oil splatter. I’d bought it for her last Mother’s Day.

The third time, I zoomed in on the fridge magnet in the upper-left corner: a little Peppa Pig I’d bought at a temple fair when I was eight. It had been on the fridge ever since we lived back home.

I slammed my phone down on the table, my hands shaking.

That evil stepmother was my mom.