Prologue
Rain streaks against Noelle’s apartment window, turning the world outside into a blurry watercolor of brown leaves and gray skies. The smell of wet asphalt drifts in whenever the wind rattles the glass. She stares at it, unshaven, hair loosely tied in a messy bun, coffee cup half full on the desk beside her laptop.
Her inbox is full of client emails, all politely urgent, all demanding ideas and plans, but her mind feels like it’s sinking through fog. She scrolls past them without reading. Her grandmother’s handwritten note lies in a small cardboard box on the kitchen counter, unopened. She doesn’t touch it. Not yet.
It’s just another Monday, she tells herself. Nothing’s changed. Why would it?
