Matthew had lived as a widower for twenty years, mourning the love of his life, Taylor. He had accepted her loss, though the pain never truly faded. But nothing could have prepared him for what happened next. One moment, he was at the coffee shop, stirring sugar into his coffee, and the next, everything changed. His vision blurred, his arm went numb, and before he could react, the world tilted. The floor rushed up to meet him. Then, a voice. “Repeat after me,” a woman said urgently. “Say ‘The sky

Paul was the kind of student every teacher dreamed of—bright, polite, eager to learn. Then, one day, he stopped coming to school. No warning. No explanation. Just… gone. And when I finally found out why, it changed everything. I never had children of my own. People always told me I’d regret it, that one day I’d wake up with an aching emptiness that no career or hobby could fill. Maybe they were right. Maybe they weren’t. But I always told myself that my students were my kids, in a way.

The first time someone mentioned Amber’s wedding, I laughed. “Wait, Amber who?” I asked, taking a sip of my coffee, completely distracted by the giant slice of cheesecake in front of me. The table went silent. Four pairs of eyes locked onto me, their expressions stunned, as if I had just confessed to a crime. “Are you serious, Ivy?” Lauren finally asked, her voice laced with disbelief. “Amber Amber. Our Amber.” My stomach dipped. “No. She would have told me. She had to have told me! You guys are just