Morning crept in slowly, pale and reluctant. Michelle woke before the cabin stirred.
For a moment, she lay still beneath the heavy quilt, staring at the faint outline of the ceiling beams above her, listening to the muted howl of wind outside. The storm hadn’t loosened its grip. If anything, it sounded angrier, snow rattling against the windows, branches groaning under the weight of ice.
She exhaled carefully, as if breathing too deeply might wake something she wasn’t ready to face.
Today, she would leave.
That had been the plan when she closed her eyes last night. It had to be. Staying longer felt dangerous. Every hour in this cabin chipped away at the walls she’d spent ten years building. Jeremiah’s voice. Daisy’s innocence. The truth he had thrown at her like a confession and a woun
