LORI
The second I stepped through my mum’s front door, I knew something was wrong. Not the usual your mum’s in a bad mood wrong, but the kind of wrong where the air feels too thick to breathe and you start scanning for an exit before you’ve even taken your shoes off. And then I saw him.
My dad. My actual father. Sitting on our sofa like he was always there, one arm slung over the backrest, legs spread like this was his throne. He looked older, sure—more lines around his eyes, hair streaked with grey—but his gaze was exactly the same as the last time I saw him.
I stopped dead in the doorway, my whole friend group crowding up behind me. Jason was right behind my shoulder, the heat of him bleeding into my back. Evie leaned into Reed and whispered something that sounded a lot like holy s**
