I wake up and know immediately what day it is.
Saturday.
The gala is tonight.
My phone says it's 8:47 AM, which means I have approximately ten hours before I need to leave, ten hours to prepare for facing Feifei and Xue Lian and every elite spouse who's going to be watching me like I'm tonight's entertainment.
Great.
I lie there for a moment, staring at the ceiling, and register that Bael's side of the bed is already empty.
Cold.
He's been leaving earlier than usual this week and coming home later, working in his office instead of the home one.
We've barely spoken since Monday morning when he told me not to come to his office on a whim.
Four days of carefully polite distance, four days of me eating breakfast alone, spending days in various rooms avoiding places that remind me of him, going to bed before he gets home.
Four days of proving to myself that I don't need his attention, his care, his anything.
It's fine.
Everything is fine.
I get up and head to the bathroom.
