She waited across the road from the house she grew up in until the lights went out and her breathing steadied enough for her to cross. She paused in the front yard, looked up at her father’s window, then decided to go around the back.
The door was unlocked. The familiar smell of stale booze almost made her turn around. She didn’t. She moved down the hall to the ajar door of his office. Stepping around overflowing boxes and strewn bottles, she bypassed the paper-piled desk, making for the corner of the room.
She ran her fingers along where the stained carpet met the wall and when she found the loose part, she pulled…
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