Chapter 60

• We did not wait for morning. There was no time to pause or let the news settle. After the confrontation with Howard, I felt like something in me had shifted permanently, like the soft part of me that still wanted to believe in decency had quietly stepped away, leaving behind the steel I knew I would need for what came next. I walked back to the boutique with Julian beside me, the silence between us filled with a shared understanding that no one else could hold. By the time we stepped inside, the moon had already climbed above the rooftops, pale and watchful, casting a silver glow over the showroom floor.
• The lights stayed off. I moved by instinct now. I took off my coat, folded it neatly, and laid it on the bench near the fitting mirrors. Julian did the same without asking. I turned toward the back office and called Simone first. Then Claudia. Then Luis. Each time I said only a few words, and each one of them understood. They arrived within thirty minutes, quietly, without complaint. Lena came too, despite the hour, wearing a soft beige wrap and flat shoes that told me she had not planned to be seen. She gave me a long look before speaking, as if measuring how much of myself I had left to burn through before the night was over.
• We gathered around the long central table. No one reached for coffee. No one made light conversation. Everyone was wide awake, too alert for pleasantries, their faces drawn in clean lines of fatigue and purpose. I opened my notebook, laid it flat, and stared at the center of the page for a moment before I spoke.