Chapter One
At one time, if anyone had tried to tell Iris she would end up with the stable life she had now, she’d have told them they were crazy. For so many years, she’d kept her head down, putting everything on hold for her children and pushing away that hurt, that ache, that pain that had shredded her heart, having to climb out of the dark pit that wanted to drag her down.
Now, as she pulled in a breath, she had to remind herself that she no longer felt that guttural ache that had stolen her peace of mind and distracted her from all those small things that should’ve put a smile on her face in her children’s early years. She’d forgotten exactly when it had happened, when that wretched, visceral ache, which she’d screamed into a pillow to ease, had just left.
Her six children, whom sh
