Chapter 1 - The Night I Opened My Door
The first thing Nina Harper noticed was the light. She always turned off the front lamp before leaving for work, but when she pulled into her narrow driveway that Thursday night, warm yellow light was already glowing through the living-room curtains. For one hopeful second, she thought maybe she had simply forgotten. Then she opened the front door and stopped cold. Her mother was standing in the middle of the living room holding Nina’s coat and house keys. Her father was near the hallway bench with Nina’s shoes in one hand, as if he had just decided they belonged somewhere else.
“Why are you here?” Nina asked, her voice flatter than she felt. “How did you get into my house?” Linda Harper blinked once, offended that the question had even been asked. “We’re your parents,” she said, lifting the keys slightly, as though that explained everything. Robert didn’t meet Nina’s eyes. He set the shoes down too casually and said, “Don’t make this dramatic.” Nina stepped fully inside and let the door close behind her. The kitchen cabinet doors were open. The ceramic key dish by the front door was gone. Her throw blankets had been folded into stiff squares on the couch. Her entire little house already looked like somebody else had been correcting it.
She looked at the keys in Linda’s hand and felt a very old kind of anger rise up—one that wasn’t loud, just tired. “Give me my keys,” she said. This time, neither of them moved.
