It was a Thursday morning when I found out. The air in the boutique was still, not stagnant but expectant in that soft way it often was before something shifted. The new shipment of fabric had arrived the night before, stacked neatly in rolls by the front display. Claudia had opened early to receive it. Simone was somewhere in the back going over palette selections for the spring concept board. Helena had not yet arrived, but I knew she would.

I was in the middle of sketching a neckline ...