Chapter 4 - The House, One Morning Later
When the dance ended, Theo walked me to my car and made sure I got in okay.
My father was already home, sitting at the kitchen table with his head in his hands. He'd seen it all — the whispering, the laughing, the way people looked at his wife across that gym floor. Something had finally landed.
Before I could say anything, he spoke.
"Laney, I'm so sorry. I've been lying to myself about her since the day she moved in, because I was too much of a coward to be alone in this house. But what she did tonight — there's no coming back from that."
He got up, walked down the hallway, and turned every one of my mother's photos right-side out again. When Denise came through the front door behind us, he didn't raise his voice.
"Pack a bag," he told her. "Go stay with your sister. Don't come back until I've talked to a lawyer."
It was ugly and awkward and it hurt more than I expected. But when I woke up the next morning, the house felt lighter, like a window had been opened somewhere.
May you like
Before I got out of bed, I reached down and touched the small blue V sewn into the hem of my dress. Denise had done everything she could to erase my mother and make me feel like nothing. She failed. Mom's memory was exactly where it had always been.
And honestly? I didn't need a room full of people to know whose daughter I was.
