Chapter 100

• It was a Thursday morning when I found out. The air in the boutique was still, not stagnant but expectant in that soft way it often was before something shifted. The new shipment of fabric had arrived the night before, stacked neatly in rolls by the front display. Claudia had opened early to receive it. Simone was somewhere in the back going over palette selections for the spring concept board. Helena had not yet arrived, but I knew she would.
• I was in the middle of sketching a neckline revision when I noticed the silence had stretched longer than usual. It was not discomfort. It was that particular quiet that often follows discovery. When I turned, Claudia was standing near the counter, her phone in her hand. Her expression was unreadable, but I could tell by the way she held herself that something had shifted.
• She didn’t look up. She only said, calmly, “You’re going to want to hear this.”