Chapter 4 — The Rooftop Garden

Amelia

Amelia’s heels clicked against the polished concrete floors like a metronome keeping time with her spiraling thoughts. The day had been a relentless blur of back-to-back meetings, curt directives from Ethan, and the gnawing frustration of feeling dismissed. Her sunflower pendant, usually a comforting weight against her chest, felt heavier than ever, as though it had absorbed the tension pressing down on her shoulders. She fidgeted with it absentmindedly, the engraved words on the back—“Grow through what you go through”—a mantra she clung to, even as doubt tried to creep in.