The world was cold, heavy, and silent. Then came pain.
Isla gasped for air as her body broke through the surface of the rushing water. The river dragged her like a piece of driftwood, pulling her downstream through black waves and broken branches. Her lungs screamed for air. Her arms flailed, grasping for anything to hold on to, but the current only spun her faster.
When she finally slammed into a cluster of roots jutting out from the bank, the impact knocked the breath from her chest. She clung to the roots with trembling fingers, coughing up water, her vision a blur of rain and mud. For a moment, she thought she was dying. Then her heart reminded her it still had a reason to beat.
Her child.
That single thought jolted her with strength she didn't know she had left. Isla dragged herself from the river inch by inch, her soaked dress heavy as chains. When she finally collapsed on the wet soil, she rolled onto her back, gasping for breath as the sky thundered above her.
