CHAPTER FIVE: Coffee and Old Wounds

The café was the same one Lissa used to skip school in, tucked off the square, smelling like burnt espresso and powdered sugar. The bell above the door jingled as they walked in, and her sister—Riley, five years younger but always more polished—flashed a grin at the bored teen behind the counter.

They slid into a booth by the window. Riley shrugged off her light jacket and set it down with care.

Lissa, on the other hand, kept her hoodie zipped to her collarbone, arms crossed like armor.

“So,” Riley said, stirring a packet of sugar into her iced coffee. “You’re really back.”

Lissa nodded, sipping from her black coffee like it might ground her. “Looks that way.”

There was a long pause. Not comfortable—just full of things neither wanted to say.

“You’re not staying at the house, are you?” Riley asked, glancing up with something close to concern.

Lissa’s jaw tightened. “Yeah. Why?”

Riley hesitated. “I don’t know. Just… after everything, I didn’t think you’d ever set foot in that place again.”

“Neither did I.” Lissa’s eyes darkened. “But here we are.”

Another pause. The clink of ice in Riley’s glass filled the silence.

“You still do that thing,” Riley said softly. “Where you disappear when things get hard.”

“And you still pretend nothing ever happened.”

That landed like a slap. Riley blinked, her mouth opening slightly, then closing again. “I’m not pretending. I just… moved on. I had to.”

Lissa looked out the window, swallowing the fire rising in her throat. “Good for you.”

They sat in silence again, both pretending to be interested in the small chalkboard menu above the register.

“I didn’t know how to reach you,” Riley finally said. “You blocked me. And then Mom gave me, like, five different stories about where you were.”

“I blocked you,” Lissa said, “because I was tired of being the only one still bleeding.”

Riley flinched. “That’s not fair.”

“No,” Lissa said. “It’s probably not.”

They both looked away.

As Lissa pulled into the driveway, the porch light flickered weakly—just another broken thing in this house full of ghosts. She sat there for a moment, gripping the steering wheel.

Riley had always been the golden one. Different dads, same mom, but somehow she’d ended up with all the things Lissa never got—stability, praise, or a good relationship with their mother, Annie. And yet, there was always something brittle in Riley’s perfection. Something strained behind her confident smiles.

They hadn’t spoken much since Lissa moved back. Partly because Lissa had been avoiding her, and partly because Riley had a way of digging into old wounds with a single sentence.

“You’re back in that house?” Riley had asked, disbelief thick in her voice. “Why would you even go near that place again?”

Lissa hadn’t known how to answer. Not without unraveling.

Now, she stared up at the dark windows and wondered if Riley ever thought about what really happened in this house. If she remembered the screaming, the silences, the way their mother used to ignore all of it. Or if she’d buried it all under her new life—nice car, polished job, perfect family.

They were sisters, but sometimes it felt like they’d lived completely different lives under the same roof.

Lissa exhaled slowly, the kind that rattled in her chest. Riley had her own truths to face, and Lissa wasn’t sure either of them was ready to dig that deep.

Still, some part of her hoped—desperately—that Riley remembered they used to hold hands under the covers during the worst nights.

Lissa got out of her car and slowly walked inside. This was her home now.

As Lissa finally laid down for the night. Her head full of thoughts, worry and fear of the future.

She asked herself.

If the past came knocking on her door, will she have to face it alone? Or will someone finally come to her rescue and help her face the demons of the past.