She Was Fired From Her Father’s Fashion Empire—So She Returned and Became the Designer He Couldn’t Afford to Lose
CHAPTER 12
Six months later, Bennett House was thriving again.
The company had expanded.
The new collection had sold internationally.
Mara was now chief designer.
Jonathan had stepped back from daily operations.
And Ethan had become her partner in both business and life.
Vivian, Sloane and Celia were gone.
Frost had hired them after the scandal.
Then punished them with the job they hated most.
Inventory.
Thousands of unused buttons.
Every morning, Sloane sorted them.
Celia labeled them.
Vivian counted them.
Nobody knew whether it was coincidence or revenge.
Mara never asked.
She didn’t need revenge.
She had something better.
A future.
One afternoon, Jonathan entered her studio.
He placed an old box on her desk.
Mara opened it.
Inside was her mother’s original button collection.
“You kept these?”
“All these years.”
Mara touched them.
“Why?”
Jonathan smiled.
“Your mother once told me the smallest detail could save an entire design.”
Mara laughed.
“She told me the same thing.”
“I know.”
She looked at him.
“How?”
“Because you used to tell me everything.”
For a moment, they simply looked at each other.
The past remained.
It always would.
But it no longer controlled them.
Then Ethan appeared at the door.
“Mara?”
“Yes?”
“Your mother once said something else.”
“What?”
He smiled.
“Fashion is supposed to make people feel seen.”
Mara looked at the new collection hanging behind her.
“She was right.”
Ethan walked toward her.
“You finally believe it?”
Mara smiled.
“I finally understand it.”
