Chapter 257

• The morning light spilled lazily through the boutique windows, falling in warm pools across the worn wooden floors. Dust floated in the beams, catching in a way that made the air itself feel alive. I walked slowly among the tables, smoothing fabrics, arranging sketches, and adjusting mannequins, as though every careful movement stitched me back into the person I had always been meant to become.
• Noelle followed quietly, her fingers brushing the silk and cotton as if testing for its memory. “This one feels like your old self,” she said softly, “but stronger. More certain. More… you.”
• I nodded, letting my hand linger on a skirt I had designed ten years ago, a piece that had survived countless failures and rejections. “It’s what this show is for,” I murmured. “To see the journey, from the girl I was to the woman I am now.”