If She Listened--All Devices by Blake Pierce

Author:Blake Pierce [Pierce, Blake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2025-09-08T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Diana stood on the sidewalk for nearly ten minutes, staring at the house that had once been her home. The afternoon was quiet and a bit eerie. She still wasn’t used to the wide-open space all around her and her brain seemed to be having a hard time understanding it. The white paint she remembered had been replaced with a soft blue that looked cheerful and welcoming in the afternoon light. A child's bicycle lay on its side near the front steps, its training wheels catching the sun. Scattered across the small front yard were other signs of family life: a soccer ball, a jump rope, chalk drawings on the concrete walkway that led to the front door.

The garden she had planted along the foundation was gone, replaced with low-maintenance shrubs that required no tending. Even the mailbox was different, painted to match the house with decorative flowers stenciled along its side. Everything about the place spoke of the family that lived there, laughed there, made memories in the rooms where she had once tucked her own children into bed. It was the sort of house that was. long ways away from being considered high-end but a few rungs above lower-class as well. A warm and charming home, as it had always been.

And all of these changes told her everything she needed to know. Things were different. Everything had all changed. No one she knew lived here anymore.

Still, she’d made the journey. She may as well knock and see if she could learn anything. Her hands trembled as she gripped the strap of her canvas bag. Fifteen years had passed since she'd walked through that front door, kissed her husband goodbye in the morning, helped her children with their homework at the kitchen table. The life she'd built in this house felt both impossibly distant and heartbreakingly real, as if she could close her eyes and hear echoes of birthday parties and Christmas mornings that would never come again.

She forced herself to take one step forward, then another, until she was standing at the front door with her finger hovering over the doorbell. The door itself was new, painted to match the house with a decorative glass panel that hadn't been there before. Even this small detail felt like evidence of how completely her old life had been erased and rebuilt without her.

The doorbell chimed softly when she finally pressed it, a different sound than she remembered. Through the glass panel, she could see movement inside, someone approaching. Diana's heart hammered against her ribs as footsteps grew closer.

The door opened to reveal a woman in her early forties with shoulder-length brown hair and kind eyes. She was wearing jeans and a sweater with a Disney character on it. Her expression was curious but friendly, the look of someone accustomed to neighbors dropping by or children's friends coming to play.

"Can I help you?" the woman asked, her voice warm but cautious.

Diana opened her mouth but found herself unable to speak. This woman was living in her house, probably sleeping in her bedroom, cooking meals in her kitchen.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.