A Reborn Bride Pearl Emerging from Dust by Sally Garcia

Mavis was probably getting ready to come out. Things had gone quiet on her end.

Calliope chatted with Portia for a while, and they made plans for Portia to come over and hang out after dinner.

As they talked, Calliope noticed that Archie Yoder had gone completely silent in the group chat.

She decided to tag him directly.

Calliope: "Hey Archie, what's up? You've been awfully quiet."

Calliope couldn't help but worry about Archie. He'd always had a tough time with the Yoder family. His stepmother was a nightmare, and his dad wasn't exactly a warm presence either. In fact, he always said Archie wasn't "good enough" and he much preferred Archie's younger half-brother.

Archie's pretty much been the family's underdog for as long as Calliope could remember. Sure, he worked at the family business now, but he was always getting the short end of the stick. His dad never seemed to take him seriously.

But Archie also wasn't the type to stand up and fight back, so he just ended up stuck, constantly under his family's thumb.

But because of his dad, he couldn't just bail and do his

could basically picture exactly what was going on

stepmom was the queen of fake niceness-she'd say all the right things, make a show of being the perfect loving

at Christmas dinner, and Gavin Yoder-the ever-clueless dad would just blame Archie for "making a scene,"

home altogether. But she knew there wasn't

Archie staying silent, Calliope's concern

seemed to pick up on

wicked stepmom is at it again? Seriously, why can't she let anyone

frowned, thinking it over. Finally, she just called

picked up almost

"Hey, Callie. What's up?"

voice, and she relaxed a little. "Archie, are you alright? Are

just watching some TV. Archie laughed, trying to sound casual. "Don't worry about" me, after dinner I'll come over and hang out. Really,

you sure?" Calliope hesitated. She was still worried about him. She knew that even if something was wrong, Archie would never admit it. He always