The boutique emptied slowly, but the tension didn’t.

Even after the last photographer disappeared into the sunlit street, and the quiet hum of conversation faded to nothing, I remained still beneath the chandelier light. The press preview had ended with a polite applause, some murmurs of admiration, and a few raised eyebrows that promised headlines. But it was not the praise or skepticism I remembered most. It was the silence that came afterwards, the way the boutique held its breath once ...