Page 38 of Trapped with the Ice Queen

The quiet was suffocating. And in the stillness, Alex realized just how much she had allowed fear to define her. How much she had let it control her, push her away from something real. Something she wanted.

And now, she was left with nothing.

The fire crackled, and the paper bird—once a symbol of hope, of something beautiful—now felt like an anchor, weighing her down.

Alex awoke to a cabin that felt emptier than ever before. The fire in the hearth had died sometime in the night, leaving the air brittle with cold. She didn’t bother lighting it again. She didn’t see the point. The faint gray light of morning seeped through the curtains, dull and lifeless, matching the heaviness that had settled in her chest.

The days since Vivienne’s departure had blurred into one another, a monotonous routine of chores and silence.Alex moved through them like a ghost, her mind replaying every moment, every word, every mistake.

The paper bird still sat on the coffee table, exactly where she had left it. She hadn’t touched it since that first night, too afraid it would disintegrate, as fragile as her resolve. But she couldn’t bring herself to put it away either. It sat there, a quiet reminder of everything she had ruined.

She glanced at it now as she nursed a cup of lukewarm coffee, her hands wrapped tightly around the mug as though it might provide some comfort. But the heat didn’t reach her, not really.

The mornings were the hardest. Waking up and reaching for someone who wasn’t there. Remembering, all over again, that Vivienne was gone. That she had sent her away.

She tried to distract herself with work. The fence around her cabin needed repairing after the last storm, and the tool shed roof had sprung a leak, water pooling in one corner. Normally, she would have tackled these tasks with her usual determination, losing herself in the physical labor. But now,her hands faltered, her focus shattered by the thoughts that refused to leave her alone.

Alex would catch herself staring off into the distance. Images of Vivienne haunted her: the way her smile had lit up the room, the way she had thrown herself into every challenge during their time together, no matter how small, whether it was starting the fire or peeling carrots.

And the way she had looked at Alex—with trust, with hope. With something Alex hadn’t recognized at the time but now knew it was love.

The realization gnawed at her.

In the quiet of the cabin, she replayed their conversations, dissecting every word. She heard Vivienne’s voice in her head, soft and hesitant when she’d asked Alex to come with her to her SUV. The hope in her tone, the vulnerability she had laid bare. And then Alex’s response—sharp, dismissive, cruel.

She had told herself she was doing the right thing. That they were too different, that their lives would never align. But now, alone in the suffocating silence of the cabin, Alex wondered if she had been lying to herselfall along.

The truth was, she was afraid.

Afraid of what Vivienne represented—change, vulnerability, the possibility of something more. Afraid of leaving the life she had built here, the one that had kept her safe and predictable for so long.

But safety had come at a cost. And now, that cost felt unbearable.

Alex found herself walking out to the woods more often, her boots crunching through the snow as she retraced the paths she and Vivienne had taken. The trees loomed tall and silent, their branches heavy with snow, and Alex couldn’t help but imagine Vivienne beside her, her cheeks pink from the cold, her laughter echoing through the forest.

She reached the spot where they had first crossed paths—the place where Alex had found Vivienne stranded, cold and frightened. The memory played out in her mind like a scene from a movie, vivid and raw.

Alex crouched down, her gloved hand brushing the ground where the snow had long since covered any trace of their meeting. She closed her eyes, the cold seeping through her jeans, and let herself feel it—theloss, the regret, the love she hadn’t been brave enough to acknowledge.

The love she had pushed away.

Back at the cabin, the afternoons dragged on as her thoughts refused to settle, no matter how busy she tried to stay.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, Alex stood on the porch, watching the sky bleed into shades of pink and orange. The mountains loomed in the distance, their peaks glowing in the last light of day. It was a view she had always loved, one that had brought her peace.

But now, it felt incomplete.

The sunset reminded her of the firelight dancing on Vivienne’s skin, of the way the warmth of her presence had filled the cabin in a way the flames never could.

Alex leaned against the railing, the wood rough under her hands. For the first time in years, she felt truly lost.

Vivienne had been a storm in her life—unexpected, intense, and impossible to ignore. She had shaken everything Alex thought she knew about herself, about what she wanted, about what she was capableof feeling.

And now that the storm had passed, all that remained was the silence.

But in that silence, Alex began to hear something else.

A question.

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