Chapter 76

• I never intended to show these pieces to anyone outside my circle. Not yet. Not when everything still felt so fragile. They had been stored quietly for years, folded and packed away, untouched since the days before the company split, before the betrayal, before my name started showing up in places that had nothing to do with the work. These designs were from another version of my life, and until now, I had kept them to myself.
• The showcase was not on the press calendar. There were no invitations sent to editors or influencers. No interviews scheduled. Just a quiet room, a short list of people who had earned the right to witness what had come before the noise, and a collection of designs that had been hidden too long.
• They were not new. These pieces predated the split. They came from the years when I still worked at my mother’s table, pinning patterns on muslin and sewing by lamplight. Before the launch. Before the betrayal. Before my name stopped feeling like it belonged to me.