Isla’s POV
The house was warm, filled with the soft twinkle of Christmas lights and the faint scent of pine from the decorated tree in the living room. Christmas music played quietly from the kitchen speaker, but it didn’t bring Isla the joy it once did. Instead, it felt like background noise to the loneliness she was trying to push away.
She sat on the couch, watching Shane Jr. and Lily build a gingerbread house on the coffee table. They were laughing, bickering over who got to place the last gumdrop on the roof, but beneath their joy, she could see it—the sadness, the confusion. They missed the way things used to be.
And truthfully, so did she.
“Mom,” Lily piped up, her small voice hesitant. “When can we go over to Miss Sade’s house?”
Isla’s stomach twisted. She knew this was comin
