Keeping Up Appearances

Vance

The front door creaks loudly as I push it open, the sound echoing off the walls of the foyer to my all-too-quiet house.

I’ve just come home from the city, with Stella’s words still fresh on my mind. Mistake. Shouldn’t have happened. Never happening again. It feels like tiny knives being stuck under my skin over and over again.

All I ever did was try to make her realize that I still cared—th