Thank God for Junie. She’d taken the kids to see Santa this morning so I’d be able to work without interruption.

Sadly, Christmas had been an afterthought this year with everything else going on. The kids vacillated between excitement and sadness. This was their first Christmas without Mark and their grandparents, and their absence would be hard on them. It was hard on me. I’d invited Fran and Howard to visit for Christmas, but they’d just settled into their Arizona home. They promised we’d spend the next Christmas together.

Mark and I had our family Christmas traditions, such as decorating the tree together. I’d order pizza, and Fran would bring chocolate cheesecake and eggnog. Mark and his father put the lights on the tree. The kids added the ornaments where they could reach. Mark placed the tree topper on the tree. We turned off all the lamps, and Mark made a big production of turning on the tree lights. We called it the Mills’ tree-lighting ceremony. Later, Mark and I would shoo the kids off to bed, put presents under the tree, and fill their stockings amid sips of eggnog and laughter.

I lived in my own personal snow globe, where everything was perfect and nothing from the outside could get in. All the signs had been there—Mark’s late nights, disinterest in sex, and bored responses with me. We’d stopped discussing our future and having date nights. We’d fallen into a rut. We were comfortable, and all my attempts to spice up our marriage and elicit a response from him had failed miserably.

I’d depended on a man for my happiness, my financial stability, and my self-esteem. I’d stand on my own two feet and be strong for myself and my children.

Right now, that strength required I lift my weary body off this couch and continue with the Christmas decorations. I still hadn’t purchased a tree. I’d been miserly with the money I’d received from Easton, but I hadn’t considered the hundreds of dollars I spent on decorations. Christmas decorations were expensive when you were starting at ground zero. Even my careful list making hadn’t been foolproof, and I’d forgotten several essential items.

Someone rang the doorbell, and I dragged my weary body to the door. I checked the peephole and saw Easton’s beaming face. With a sigh, I opened the door and jumped backward. The huge evergreen tree dwarfed the rather large hallway.

“Hey, where would you like this?” Easton asked.

“I…uh…I…” Unable to respond, I merely stood back and allowed Steele and Easton to wrestle the large tree past me. I followed them into the living room, where Easton positioned the tree next to the corner by the large wall of windows.

“What do you think?” he said.

“I’m overwhelmed. It’s beautiful, but I don’t have a tree stand.”

“We have all that.” As if on cue, another knock sounded on the door. I opened it find to a stack of boxes, behind which was Kaden. He carefully entered the apartment with the boxes tottering precariously. I held on to the top one to balance them until he put them down.