Chapter 26
In Her Own Time The week after the gala was quieter than expected. No dramatic backlash from the board. No angry phone calls. No scandals. Just silence. But not the kind that haunted her for years. This was peace. The kind that let her sleep in a little longer. Eat without anxiety chewing at her first. Laugh at something on TV without guilt trailing behind it. She wasn’t waiting for the other shoe to drop anymore. She wasn’t wearing someone else’s shoes at all. The clinic felt different now. Not in the walls or the layout—but in her. She didn’t walk through the halls wondering if she was qualified to lead. She didn’t feel like an imposter anymore. These were her people. Her space. And she had earned every inch of it. That morning, she passed Ava—the new counselor she’d hired—laug
- Writer
