The scent of cinnamon drifted through the air, pulling me out of bed before the alarm even had a chance to buzz. For the first time in a while, I didn’t mind being up early. My muscles still ached faintly from the stress of the past week, but something had awoken inside me—a quiet fire burning in the pit of my stomach.I padded down the stairs in fuzzy socks and found my mother humming at the stove, her back turned. She was holding on to a spatula, swaying from side to side."Morning, sunshine," she said without looking."Morning," I replied, walking over to grab two mugs from the cupboard. "You made French toast?""Figured you could use a little sugar before facing the world today."I smiled, pouring coffee into both mugs. She slid a plate stacked high with golden toast onto the table, then sat across from me. We ate in comfortable silence for a while, the clinking of forks and the occasional scrape of a chair the only sounds.Eventually, she looked up. "So," she said, her tone casua
Last Updated : 2025-06-20 Read more