Door Kept Wide Open

Before marrying Mark, Rita made her terms clear: she would not be a stepmother, and she wanted nothing to do with the wreckage of his first marriage. Mark promised that the twins, Ethan and Hannah, lived with their mother, Wendy, and would never simply turn up on their doorstep. Then, on their first Thanksgiving, the doorbell rings and two fourteen-year-olds stand in the cold with battered backpacks, asking only to stay a couple of days.

Rita takes them in, but the children move like strays, apologising for their shoes and asking permission to eat. When Hannah whispers that she is not hungry, Rita begins to see how badly they have been living, and turns her anger on Mark, who has paid his child support on time but has not truly seen his children in years.

As the twins' fear slowly surfaces, Rita must decide what she owes these two children and what her husband's silence has cost them.