The office was alive. Not with chaos, but with energy—the kind of focused, purposeful momentum Isabelle had worked years to create.
The hum of keyboards. The quiet click of heels down the hall. Someone pitching an idea over the sound of a printer spitting out mockups. There were children’s products on nearly every surface—prototypes, testing reports, packaging layouts—but somehow, the space still felt grown-up. Sharp. Intentional.
Just like her.
Isabelle stood near the wall-to-wall window, sipping her second espresso of the morning, skimming numbers on a new analytics dashboard. Projected growth had exceeded last quarter’s forecast by 11%. The Hale investment was already stretching her reach—into schools, clinics, even overseas pilot programs.
This was no longer a toy company.
It was
