The alarm sounded at six-thirty, a sharp digital chirp that cut through the silence of the bedroom. I reached out and silenced it before it could ring a second time. Marcus was already awake, propped up on one elbow, watching the light change on the ceiling as the sun began to rise behind the clouds. There was no lingering sleepiness this morning, no drifting transition from dreams to reality. There was only the immediate weight of the day. The book launch event was in three days. The security briefing was scheduled for nine. The foundation crisis meeting was at eleven. The school parent-teacher conference was at two. It was a triangulation of pressures, each pulling at a different part of my identity. Author. Advocate. Mother.
I sat up and swung my legs over the side of the bed. The floo
