Prologue

Some people prefer to keep their love lives private, but not Millie's parents, Claire and Thomas Harper.

They saw no shame in expressing their love to the world, so that's what they did. Their love was loud and impossible to ignore. The kind that filled a room with laughter and made strangers smile without quite knowing why. They teased each other constantly, stole glances whenever they thought no one was looking, and held hands as if letting go would bring about a catastrophe. 

Even the birthday girl, Millie, half asleep in the backseat, knew the simple, undeniable truth about her parents.

They loved each other more than anything.

It was almost the end of her middle school's winter break, and they were on their way back home from a trip to Florida.

 The car hummed steadily along the road, headlights cutting through the fog. Millie pressed her forehead against the cool window, watching the blurred lights pass by. Up front, her parents were playfully arguing like the way they always did.

"You took a wrong turn," her mother said, though there was laughter in her voice. "We went along that road on the way to Colorado!"
"I did not," her father replied. "This is a shortcut."
"That's what you just said twenty minutes ago!"
"And I stand by it."

Her mother laughed affectionately and reached across the console to squeeze her father's hand. He gently squeezed back. It was such a simple gesture, but it happened often enough that Millie barely noticed it anymore. 

She smiled faintly to herself. They were always like this. Teasing, laughing, and pretending to argue over the smallest things. She wished to have a love like her parents' one day. That's what she wished for every birthday.

Until today, her ninth birthday, that is.
That's when everything changed.

The bright flash of headlights appeared suddenly around the curve ahead, far too close and far too fast. Tires screeched somewhere in the fog. The world seemed to tilt all at once.

Millie sat up in the back seat, confused by the sudden tension in the air.

Her father gripped the steering wheel, trying to steady the car. The other vehicle was swerving wildly, sliding left and right across the road and heading straight for their car.
Straight for them.

There was only a moment. A single, terrifying moment.

Time seemed to slow down as her mother reached for the wheel without hesitation. She turned the steering wheel away from the oncoming car before her father could do anything. 

It was a small movement, quick and sloppy, but everything changed from there. The car shifted just enough that the screeching vehicle crashed straight into the passenger side —her mother's side— instead of the driver's.

The sound of the impact was deafening. Glass seemingly shattered in all directions, metal ground against metal, and the world exploded into chaos.

For a long moment, the air was still with silence. When Millie opened her eyes again, the world seemed to be upside down, and the car had stopped moving. The world outside was strangely still, as if it had paused itself.

But she was alive. Shaken and a little injured here and there from the glass shards, but alive. So was her father, though he had more injuries. Her mother, however...

The last thing she heard was the sound of the sirens wailing. "Someone must have called for an ambulance," she thought simply, before blacking out.

In the years that followed, Millie would learn the truth about that night. About the split-second decision on her mother made. About how her mother sacrificed her life for him without a second thought. About how love can make people brave enough to do impossible things.

But love, Millie would come to believe, always asked for a price.

And sometimes, that price was your everything.