CLAIRE

I woke up at five in the morning, my mind was already racing, already calculating production timelines and work schedules. Julian was still sleeping beside me, his breathing deep and even.

I slipped out of bed carefully and went to the kitchen to make coffee, the sun was just beginning to rise, painting the sky in shades of pink and orange.

I sat at the kitchen table with my laptop, pulling up the spreadsheet I'd started the night before.

Fifty-three dresses needed to be remade, six weeks to do it, that meant roughly nine dresses a week, or about three a day if we worked standard hours.

But we...