“I Bought My Daughter the Cake She’d Dreamed About for Weeks — and That Was the Last Normal Moment”

Lena’s age and probably her closest friend in the family. A few girls from Lena’s school came—quieter kids who drew manga in notebooks during lunch and talked about anime I’d never heard of. My parents arrived last, my dad carrying a card with twenty dollars inside because that’s what he always did for birthdays, my mom holding a gift bag stuffed with continue reading …