12: Bionda

Once, this house on a busy street was home, but for twenty years, home's been a fortress in the mountains, cold and steadfast. Nobody recognizes her, for which she's grateful. She doesn't want to be made to feel ashamed. Bionda considers walking away and never returning. She finds she can't.

She steels herself and knocks at the door. Her father's hair is greyer than she remembered. All the words she'd prepared evaporate.

His words fall into the silence like stones. "I meant it when I said you could always come home."

"But can you forgive me?"

"I guess we'll find out."