That night, sleep never came.
No matter how many times I closed my eyes or shifted beneath the covers, my mind refused to rest, circling endlessly around everything that had happened and everything that was about to happen.
Every conversation replayed itself in fragments, every expression, every word, every glance, as if my thoughts were trying to prepare me for something I could not yet see clearly.
At some point, I gave up on the idea of resting altogether.
I pushed the covers aside and sat up, the quiet of the room pressing in around me as I reached for my documents, spreading them carefully across the desk.
The soft glow of the lamp cast long shadows over the pages, but I welcomed it, because it gave me something to focus on.
Tomorrow, I would sit before the executives.
Tomorrow, I would be judged.
And tomorrow, I would make sure they saw exactly what I wanted them to see.
