It Started With a Sleigh

by Kaydence Snow

  Why was he so upset?

  I had so many questions. What happened? Why did the plane crash? How did no one else survive? Why did I make it? Why not her? How did you know where to search? Where am I? What’s going to happen now? Who are you? Why are you still here? Why do you care?

  But I couldn’t find it in me to care about the answers.

  No. That one little word had confirmed what I had suspected since I’d first woken up, with a stranger sitting in the chair at my bedside instead of my mother.

  I’d felt strong when I’d woken up a few moments earlier, but now I felt weak again. An awful pressure built in my chest, and a lump formed in my throat.

  She was gone. Forever. I would never see my mother again. Never speak to her, hug her, argue with her. Argue. That was the last thing we’d done. She died thinking I was mad at her.

  I was alone in the world. I was motherless. An orphan. I had felt lonely for much of my life, but whatever my mother’s reasons were for keeping us distant from other people, she had always been there for me. She was the one constant in my life, the one person I could always rely on.

  Yes, I had felt lonely in the past, but lying in that hospital bed with a stranger at my bedside, I truly knew what it meant to feel alone.

  I’m alone.

  Fat tears finally overflowed, and I wrapped my arms around my torso. I began to sob as I rolled onto my side toward the window, every muscle in my body taut with despair.

  Boots squeaked across the linoleum, and then the thin hospital blanket was pulled over my shoulder. The bed behind me dipped, and his body pressed into mine from behind, his arm snaking around my front. He held me tight and I heard his voice, close to my ear.

  “You are not alone.”

  I must have said that out loud. His declaration made me cry harder—ugly, unrestrained tears. Sobs wracked my body as I curled into a ball.

  He held on to me through it all. We didn’t touch, nowhere did our skin make contact, but he held me tight until my crying calmed down to soft sobs. He held me tight as the sobs gave way to silent tears pooling on the pillow. He held me tight as I drifted off into blissful unconsciousness again.

  When I woke up the next morning, there was a nurse at the foot of my bed, writing something on a clipboard, and the stranger really was gone.

  Keep reading Variant Lost

  Acknowledgments

  First and foremost, thank you to John – my partner in every conceivable way, my pillar of strength, my soft place to land.

  Thank you to my friends and family for your continued support and for showing me the fun, exciting, nice things about Christmas during those years when I was in my own retail hell and wanted to stab myself in the eye at the sound of jingle bells or the sight of tinsel.

  Massive thank you to my cover designer and editor for your hard work and fast turn-around on this one.

  Thank you to Sam, my beta and ARC readers. You are amazing!

  Thank you to every single reader who chooses to spend time in the stories I write. You are the greatest gift of all!

  And, of course, thank you to Mariah Carey for my fave Christmas song of all time!

  About the Author

  Kaydence Snow has lived all over the world but ended up settled in Melbourne, Australia. She lives near the beach with her husband and a beagle that has about as much attitude as her human.

  She draws inspiration from her own overthinking, sometimes frightening imagination, and everything that makes life interesting – complicated relationships, unexpected twists, new experiences and good food and coffee. Life is not worth living without good food and coffee!

  She believes sarcasm is the highest form of wit and has the vocabulary of a highly educated, well-read sailor. When she’s not writing, thinking about writing, planning when she can write next, or reading other people’s writing, she loves to travel and learn new things.

  To keep up to date with Kaydence’s latest news and releases sign up to her newsletter here:

  kaydencesnow.com

  Join her reader group here:

  facebook.com/groups/KaydenceSnowLodge

  Or follow her on:

  Also by Kaydence Snow

  (The Evelyn Maynard Trilogy)

  Variant Lost: The Evelyn Maynard Trilogy - Part One

  Vital Found: The Evelyn Maynard Trilogy - Part Two

  Vivid Avowed: The Evelyn Maynard Trilogy - Part Three

  (Contemporary Standalone)

  Just Be Her