After three years locked away, I returned to learn my father had d!ed and my stepmother ruled his house. She didn’t know he’d hidden a letter and key, leading to a unit and video proving frame-up.
Or what I believed was home.
The bus dropped me three blocks away. I ran the rest, lungs burning, heart pounding like it could outrun time itself. The street looked familiar at first—the cracked sidewalks, the old maple tree sagging at the corner—but the closer I got, the more wrong it felt.
The porch railing was still there, but the peeling white paint was gone, replaced with a fresh slate-blue finish. The wild flower beds my father loved were trimmed and manicured, filled with plants I didn’t recognize. And the driveway—once empty—now held a polished sedan and an SUV, foreign and expensive.
I slowed.
Still, I climbed the steps.
The front door used to be dull navy—chosen because it “hid dirt best.” Now it was charcoal gray with a brass knocker. Where the crooked brown welcome mat once sat, there was a pristine coir mat that read:
HOME SWEET HOME
I knocked.
Not gently.
Not cautiously.
I knocked like a son who had counted every one of the 1,095 days. Like someone who still believed he belonged.
The door opened—and the warmth I expected never came.
Linda stood there.
My stepmother.
Perfectly styled hair. Crisp silk blouse. Sharp eyes that inspected me like an inconvenience delivered by mistake.
For a brief moment, I thought she might flinch. Or soften. Or at least seem surprised.
She didn’t.
“You’re out,” she said flatly.
“Where’s my dad?” My voice sounded unfamiliar—rough, too loud.
Her lips tightened.
Then she said it.
“Your father died last year.”
The words hovered, unreal.
Buried.
A year ago.
My mind refused to accept it. I waited for clarification. For cruelty disguised as a joke.
But she didn’t blink.
“We live here now,” she added. “You should leave.”
The hallway behind her was unrecognizable. New furniture. New pictures. No sign of my father’s boots. No jacket. No smell of sawdust or coffee.
It was as if he had been erased.
And she held the eraser.
“I need to see him,” I said, desperation clawing at my chest. “His room—”
“There’s nothing left,” she replied, closing the door. Not slamming it. Just closing it. Slowly. Final.
The deadbolt clicked.
I stood there, stunned.
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