Roxie woke to sunlight slipping through the curtains, warm and soft across her cheek. For a moment, she just lay there, stretching under the blanket with a sleepy groan, feeling strangely light and refreshed.
For some reason, she felt the need to just lie back and enjoy the moment. But even as she tried to doze off again, her brain was already awake and telling her something wasn’t right about her current circumstances. For one, there were no small feet trying to push her out of bed or the light snore that always reassured her that she still had a few minutes to herself before Josaih woke up.
Silence was every mother’s nightmare, and Roxie was upright and searching the empty bed in the next heartbeat. Feeling the sheets' cold only heightened her panic, and Roxie was out of bed and about
