Chapter 129

• The news did not come in the form of a headline or a glossy fashion write-up. It arrived in the small hours of the morning, when the boutique was still quiet and the light outside was grey with that hesitant winter sun. Claudia had been in early, checking fabrics and unpacking new stock from the back, when she paused at the counter with her phone in her hand. She was not scrolling for entertainment. Her brows were drawn, the way they get when she is reading something that does not sit well with her.
• I was in the workshop, going over an order that had come in overnight. A client from Paris wanted three custom silk jackets, each stitched with a pattern we had debuted only two months ago. It was not the kind of piece that could be rushed. The cuts had to be precise, the lines in the embroidery clean and deliberate. I was bent over the table, checking the measurements again, when Claudia called for me.
• “You should see this,” she said.