Ella

I wake to bright sunshine streaming through the window next to our bed in the cottage. I squeeze my eyes shut against the onslaught of light and reach over the sun-warmed sheets for Ryatt, but the other side of the bed is still as empty as it was when I fell asleep.

For the first time in weeks, I don’t feel like death this morning.

Maybe it’s the way the warm sun plays over my skin and the chipper birdsong outside, but I feel… happy. Lively. I feel like getting up and stretching my body instead of burying myself in bed again.

I can sense a shift in the...