The keys jingled in my hand as I opened the front door. My backpack was heavy on my shoulder, but I didn’t care. As soon as I set foot in the hallway, the voices coming from the living room made me stop.

“You can’t expect him to just accept me overnight, Charles,” Alexandra’s voice sounded strained, almost on the verge of frustration.

“It’s been years, Alexandra. Years!” my father replied, his tone somewhere between exhausted and annoyed. “I don’t know what else to do.”

I leaned against the wall, letting a smile play on my lips. It wasn’t that I loved watching my father argue, but there was something about the way his patience wore thin with her that I found… entertaining.

“It’s been years,” he had said. Yes, and in all those years he hadn’t managed to change my opinion of her. And he wouldn’t now.