**Chapter 74**
ELLIE'S POV
I stopped performing the next morning.
There was no big plan. No speech I had practiced in the mirror. No dramatic decision made under the weight of music or wine. I simply didn’t get up at 5:45. I lay in bed and listened to Richard move through the dark the way he always did — careful, efficient, already halfway out of the house in his mind. The mattress shifted when he sat to put on his socks. The closet door opened and closed. Water ran in the bathroom for exactly as long as it always did. I waited for the smell of coffee that never came. When he finally appeared in the doorway, already in his shirt and tie, he looked more irritated than concerned.
“You’re not making breakfast?”
“No.”
He stood there for a second like the word itself was wrong. Like I ha
