It wasn't a knock, more of a dull thump, as if someone were hitting the door with the flat of their hand. With a sigh, she uncrossed her legs, stood, and moved towards the door. "Jesus, who comes by at this ungodly-" was already falling from her lips, and then her hand stilled on the doorknob as she recognized his voice.

He had been crying or drinking, or maybe both, from the broken, raw tone, and she slumped against the wall in the entryway, tilting her head back. Brave idiot. Exasperation flooded over her, that he was putting her in this position, again. That he hadn't listened.

Her cell phone was in her pocket, his number still familiar, and she stared at the black words against the too-bright screen. Didn't I tell you to stay away? She erased it.

You can't go back in time. You and I both know that. Erased, too.
Don't throw away your future. She might remember that one, but she pressed her thumb to the "backspace" before she was tempted to hover it over "send", and sighed.

A faint crash startled her, made her start towards the door. Through the sheer curtains, she could see that he was walking away, and she breathed a sigh of relief—whether it was for the fact that he seemed physically unharmed or that he was leaving again or both, she couldn't say.

"What was that?" Theo had emerged from the den upstairs, and she straightened, retreating from the door.
"I don't know. It sounded like glass breaking."
"You think someone broke a window?" He was alarmed, and the last thing she wanted was him making a round of the windows, or going outside to check on the car.
"No, no. There was a kid or two out on the street—I think it was just a bottle." Not a lie, she told herself.
"Are you sure? It sounded awfully loud."

"Sure enough, dear. I can go check on it, if it makes you feel better." In fact, she was fairly sure Lip had thrown a bottle at the house, but there was no way in hell she was going to say that, and she simply thanked God Theo's study was at the back of the house and not the front.

He frowned. "No, I'm sure it's nothing. There's no alarm going off." A short pause, then: "I'm heading to bed. Will you join me soon?"
"Soon, love." Her smile was genuine, even if it was habit.

She breathed a sigh of relief when he left for the bedroom, tensed when she realized it looked out onto the street, and slowly let it out again when she didn't hear the telltale creak of that one floorboard near the window.

That was completely unacceptable. I told you to stay away. And don't yell, for Christ's sake. She stared at the words on her screen again, mentally counting down until he must be far enough away, her thumb hovering between "delete" and "send".

Her fingers tapped a rhythm on the wall. Prob-a-tion-ar-y leave. She wanted to persuade herself that they couldn't fault her for attempting to achieve the closure he so desperately needed, obviously needed—in the interest of his mental health—but she knew that the board-

No, she didn't know that the board wouldn't agree. With a deep breath, she turned her phone off and headed upstairs to broach the subject with Theo.