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The following is a commissioned mini-interlude focusing on Sariel and Larissa’s continued interaction. 

Eight Years Ago

“And what do we do after we add the butter, the sugar, and the eggs, girls?” Larissa asked her daughters with a raised eyebrow, looking back and forth between the two nine-year old girls as they all stood in the kitchen. “What’s the next step in our glorious culinary confection?”

“Confection?” Sarah and Sandoval both echoed together, the confusion and disappointment obvious in their joined voices.

“I thought we were making cookies,” Sarah continued, eyes darting from the bowl to her mother.   

Sandoval nodded in agreement, adding, “Yeah, not um, conviction. Wait, isn’t that when you hafeta go to jail? Or when you believe something really hard? Wait, are we believing cookies?”  

“This better not be a ‘the cookie is in your mind’ situation, Mommy,” Sarah informed her mother. “Because…