Monica went through a quick morning-prep routine. As she was standing in front of the mirror, scrubbing her teeth with an electric toothbrush, she saw something in her reflection that made her stop.

She had several, completely new strands of gray hair.

She spat out a mouthful of toothpaste. Set aside the toothbrush and dug her fingers deep into her scalp, leaned closer to the mirror to get a better look.

Her eyes were not deceiving her, and it wasn’t a trick of lighting, as she’d hoped. She was truly turning gray.

The realization hit her like a jab to the belly.

God, I’m truly getting old now. There’s no denying it anymore.

Irrationally, she felt herself on the verge of crying. Her nose got that twitchy feeling that always came over her before the tears started flowing. She turned on the faucet and splashed several handfuls of cold water on her face. The urge to weep passed, at least for the moment.

Well, she reasoned, her fortieth birthday was next February, three months away. Many of her friends, some her age and others slightly younger, had mentioned to her that they’d begun to spot gray hairs, and Troy had some gray, too (which he artfully concealed with a never-ending supply of Dark & Natural). It was common at her age, no cause for alarm.

Nevertheless, she was surprised. Perhaps she just hadn’t noticed it sooner, for it was as if the hair had turned color overnight.

The graying process could have been hastened by Lily’s death, too. She had been inordinately stressed over the past week. It didn’t require a suspension of disbelief to imagine rapid graying as a symptom of severe heartbreak, though she wasn’t aware of any medical research into the matter.

I can ask my mother, she thought, and her heart swelled with excitement. The age at which one’s hair began to gray was typically a hereditary trait. Since she finally had access to her biological mother, she could ask her these sorts of questions.

Heck, she could find out a lot more from Grace. She ought to do a complete medical history with her mom, learn about the family’s prevalence of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and anything else she could. She was in touch with half of her family tree and should take full advantage of it.

She finished in the bathroom and went to check on the children. After confirming that both Lexi and Junior were sound asleep, she headed downstairs. She intended to brew a pot of herbal tea and fix something for breakfast; she was famished, hadn’t eaten much of anything since yesterday afternoon. Although she was eager to spend more time with Grace, she didn’t want to disturb her mother’s rest.