Franz didn't sleep.
He lay in bed in the west wing for most of the night, staring at the ceiling and listening to the house settle. The pipes creaked, and the wind tapped branches against the window. At some point he stopped trying.
He got up at 5 AM and made coffee in the kitchen. The pot was half full from yesterday. He dumped it out and made a fresh one, watching the coffee drip into the glass pot. The sound was the only thing in the house.
He took the mug and walked upstairs to his study in the west wing.
The study was dark when he opened the door. He didn't turn on the light. He sat at his desk and watched the sun come up through the window.
The sky went from black to gray, then gray to pale blue, and then pale blue to pink at the edges. The trees outside were bare, and their branches looked like lines drawn on the sky.
He didn't notice any of it.
He was looking at his phone.
The headlines were worse than he expected.
