The first snow fell three days before Christmas.
Light and powdery at first, then thicker, heavier — blanketing the city until it looked like something from a dream.
Inside the Hale mansion, it was a different kind of magic.
The banisters were wrapped in twinkling fairy lights. The massive living room smelled of pine and cinnamon, the towering Christmas tree glittering with a thousand ornaments — each one chosen by tiny, excited hands.
Candles flickered on side tables. Fire crackled softly in the grand fireplace.
And in the middle of it all, Isabelle stood at the fireplace, adjusting a velvet ribbon on the garland like her life depended on it.
She didn’t know how she had let this happen —
How this holiday, which she had once sworn she couldn’t survive with Sebastian under the same
