Chapter 14 - Returning to work was harder than I expected.
I was an architect. I designed spaces. Lobbies. Hallways.
Elevators.
On my first day back at the firm, my boss, David, handed me a file for a new commercial high-rise.
"I can reassign it if you want, Lucy," he said gently, looking at the blueprints. "No pressure."
I looked at the schematics. Core structures. Egress routes. Four banks of elevators.
My heart gave a familiar, dull thud.
I closed my eyes. I felt the heat. I heard Valerie's voice. I felt the suffocating tightness in my chest.
Then I opened them.
I touched the silver charm around my neck. The little door Natalie had given me.
"No," I said, pulling the file toward me. "I can do it."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure. But I want to redesign the ventilation in the shafts. The standard code isn't enough."
David smiled. "Draw it up."
I spent the next six hours immersed in lines and angles. I designed emergency overrides. I expanded airflow capacities. I made the spaces safer, better, stronger.
I took the nightmare and I drafted it into something that could protect people.
May you like
When I left the office that evening, I felt lighter.
I wasn't just a victim of a building's failure anymore. I was the one deciding how the buildings were built.
