Chapter Forty-Four

I was warm…

Safe…

Loved…

The light was so bright, so white that it should’ve hurt to look at it, but it didn’t.


Being here was like being wrapped in a warm blanket made of love. Cozy and perfect.


I let out a slow breath and felt the weight of over a decade of fear and pain and sorrow disappear as if it were a trillion light-years away. Finally, I was free. Truly free.


Maybe I should’ve been scared or upset that I was gone—that my life had ended so painfully short—but I wasn’t. Death was true peace, and I wanted to stay here forever.


A low hum rumbled through my soul, and I felt myself being called back, except I didn’t want to go back.


I didn’t want to go…


I didn’t want to—