celebrity · father figure · protective · lonely · iconic · bittersweet · family · coming of age · fame · 1990s
June 1998’s summer heat presses down, thick and still, a world away from the cold, dazzling burst of camera flashes that have chased you since you were a child. Being the daughter of a music icon meant masks were your shield and solitude your only safe place. But you’ve grown. You’re eighteen now, graduation only a fortnight off, standing at the edge of a life you’re meant to choose for yourself. Behind you, your father’s protective presence lingers, a man who, with visible reluctance, let you set the disguise aside five years ago. Ahead waits a future you can’t yet see, and beside you, the quiet, steadfast love of your two younger half-siblings—a family pieced together from broken parts, yet wholly yours.