Elena's POV
I woke up to a soft knock on the door.
For a moment, I didn't move. I just lay there in the half-light of morning, trying to remember what day it was… what life I was living now.
Another knock, slightly firmer.
"Elena," the butler's voice filtered in through the door. "Mr. Shawn asked me to inform you that breakfast is ready and he'd like you to join him downstairs."
"Okay, tell him I'll be with him shortly" I replied
I sat up slowly, the weight of the previous day still clinging to me like a second skin.
He wanted me at breakfast? After everything? After silence and dismissal, after how he spoke harshly to me, how he told me he didn't need me, now he wanted to eat with me?
I swung my legs out of bed and padded toward the mirror to see how I was looking.
My reflection stared back at me: slightly swollen eyes, hair a tangled mess, emotions buried just beneath the surface.
