Heavy snow slammed relentlessly against the windows of the old Montana farmhouse, turning the outside world into a white, unbroken blur.
The wind whistled and howled around the eaves, rattling loose shingles and carrying with it the mournful echoes of the frozen valley.
Inside, seventy-eight-year-old Agnes Porter sat quietly in her favorite armchair, a steaming cup of chamomile tea warming her hands.
The porcelain mug felt heavy, almost grounding, as she inhaled its calming aroma.
Her life had been marked by decades of fierce Montana winters, of snowdrifts taller than fences and nights so dark that the stars seemed swallowed whole.
She had grown accustomed to solitude, and the stillness of her home had always been a comfort—a cocoon against the harshness of the storm.
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