Chapter 13 - THE DRESS
I kept the torn blue dress.
For years, I couldn't understand why.
Then one Christmas, Charlotte asked:
“Why don't you throw it away?”
I smiled.
“Because it reminds me.”
“Of Selena?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“The moment I stopped caring what strangers thought of me.”
I looked at the torn fabric.
That dress had once represented humiliation.
Now it represented freedom.
I placed it inside a glass case in the foundation museum.
Beside it, I placed a small plaque.
It read:
This dress was torn at a charity gala.
What followed helped expose a criminal network that had targeted the foundation for decades.
The dress was never repaired.
Neither was the woman who wore it.
She became stronger instead.
Charlotte read it.
She laughed.
“That's dramatic.”
I smiled.
“It happened.”
She hugged me.
May you like
“I like it.”
So did I.
