Chapter 5 - They Came Home Angry
Three days later, they came back from paradise.
I did not answer their calls.
I did not listen to the voicemails.
At 10:03 p.m., Chloe started pounding on my front door with both fists.
“What the hell did you do?” she screamed through the night.
I stood in my hallway holding a framed photo of Lucas in his baseball uniform.
For a moment, I pressed it to my chest and tried to breathe.
Then I opened the door.
Chloe stood on the porch in travel clothes, sunburned and furious. Derek hovered behind her, trying to look tough and failing. My parents stood near the steps, stunned, as if they had arrived expecting the same Melissa they had left behind.
Chloe pointed at me.
“What did you do to our apartment?”
I looked past her at Derek, then at my parents.
Barbara stepped forward, trembling.
“Melissa, you can’t just throw family out.”
I raised the framed photo slightly.
“You left my son’s funeral for a beach vacation.”
The porch went quiet.
Derek looked away.
My father’s face fell.
Chloe’s anger cracked, but only for a second.
Then she said, “We couldn’t cancel. You know how much that trip cost?”
I stared at her.
For the first time in my life, I truly had nothing left to give her.
“Your things are at Mom and Dad’s house,” I said.
Chloe blinked.
“What?”
“All of it. You no longer live in Thomas’s apartment.”
Derek stepped forward.
“You can’t do that.”
“I own it.”
“My wife is pregnant.”
“And my son is dead.”
May you like
No one spoke.
The American flag on my porch moved softly in the cold night air.
