Chapter 5 — The Unremarkable House

Twenty minutes later I pulled up outside an unremarkable house on a quiet street.

Walking toward the porch, I rehearsed a silent apology for disturbing strangers at such a late hour.

I felt absurd — a grieving woman chasing a dying man’s delirium to a stranger’s door in the dark.

I told myself I would knock once, and when no one answered, or when a confused stranger answered, I would go back to the hospital and sit with my father and let him go in peace.

But the instant my knuckles touched the door, it swung wide open.