Amara finally looked up. Her calm cracked just slightly. "No," she said immediately, shaking her head. "No, no…we can't have problems now. Not at this stage. What is it?"
Janet shifted her weight, uneasy. "The model for the maternity line… she gave birth today."
Silence. James blinked. "Okay, and?"
He leaned back slightly, trying to ease the tension. "That's not a problem. We can get another model. Fake the belly with padding—"
"No." Janet cut in gently. Both of them looked at her. Her expression was serious.
"They don't want it to feel fake." A pause.
"They want it to feel real. That's the entire foundation of the brand. Authenticity. Motherhood. Experience." The room fell quiet again.
Amara leaned back in her chair slowly. For the first time that day… she didn't answer immediately.
Her eyes moved across the room, across sketches pinned on the wall, prototypes draped on mannequins, notes scattered like fragments of a life she had built from nothing.
