Casey shares her complicated childhood, living with her father and stepmother, "Cop," after her parents' divorce. Her biological mother is depicted as eccentric, attention-seeking, and embarrassing. Despite this, Casey loves her mother but struggles with their relationship.
When Casey is forced to live with her mother due to a custody battle, she faces challenges adapting to her mother's unpredictable behavior. However, the arrival of her half-brother, Ethan, brings unexpected joy to their home.
As the story unfolds, Casey reconnects with her father and Cop, and they try to create a sense of normalcy. However, their lives are disrupted when a mysterious Instagram message reveals a long-lost sister, Alex. The siblings meet and decide to confront their mother about her past actions.
Their mother explains that she kept her children apart to protect them from her own issues and to give them better lives. Although her actions are hurtful, the siblings decide to give their mother a chance to make amends and work towards a better future together.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. The narrator's parents divorced when they were five years old.
2. The narrator lived with their stepmother and father in a large mansion.
3. The father's wife, "cop", was a successful fashion designer.
4. The narrator's biological mother was an opera singer.
5. The narrator has a half-brother named Ethan, whose father had custody of him.
6. The narrator's mother had kept the existence of Ethan a secret from them.
7. The narrator met Ethan for the first time when they were in seventh grade.
8. Ethan's father was very sick, and the narrator's mother had agreed to take care of Ethan for a while.
9. The narrator and Ethan became close, and their bond grew stronger.
10. The narrator's mother was attention-seeking and often caused drama.
11. The narrator got fed up with their mother's craziness and stopped responding to her attempts to contact them.
12. The narrator received a mysterious Instagram message from a person claiming to be their long-lost brother or sister.
13. The person, Alex, revealed that they were the narrator's sister and had been living with their father and stepmother.
14. Alex had been searching for the narrator and Ethan for a long time.
15. The narrator, Alex, and Ethan decided to confront their mother about why she had kept them apart.
16. Their mother revealed that she had kept them apart because she didn't want them to grow up with a "strange and embarrassing" mother.
17. The narrator and their siblings decided to give their mother a chance and work towards a better future together.