The soft glow of early morning sunlight streamed through the lodge’s windows, casting pale gold stripes across Holly’s room. But to her, it felt like nothing more than an empty stage light on a scene she didn’t want to play. She sat cross-legged on the floor, a pile of clothes beside her, her suitcase half-packed and yawning open like a void waiting to swallow the last few weeks of her life.
Holly stared at the contents of her suitcase, her chest hollow. Her sweaters, scarves, and boots, the essentials she’d packed for her snowy escape to Snowfall Valley, felt like fragments of someone else’s life now. How had so much changed in such a short time? How had she let herself believe she could belong here?
With a shaky breath, she grabbed a handful of folded clothes from the pile and shoved t
