Page 100 of Velvet Corruption

They jumbled in my mind, fragments of a truth I couldn't quite hold onto.

I shut my eyes again, squeezed them tight. Tried to focus on the sound of my name, the way it rose and fell like a wave. Tried to anchor myself to it, to let it pull me in. But the harder I tried, the more surreal it all felt.

And then it happened. Slowly at first, like thawing from a deep freeze. Reality crept in, inch by inch, moment by moment. My brain finally caught up, shaking off the fog of disbelief. This was happening. Really, truly happening.

The tension I didn't know I held began to ease, releasing like a taut wire suddenly gone slack. I opened my eyes again, let the lights and sounds rush back. The press of people. The riot of celebration. It was overwhelming, yes, but it was mine.

I was winning.

Alek was right. I had actually fucking won.

Julian’s hand closed around my wrist. His grip was firm, insistent. Like he could pull me out of disbelief and into the world of the living.

"You did it," he said, and just like that, reality crashed in.

The room erupted. Bodies pressed in on me from every side. I couldn't breathe. I didn’t want to breathe. Hands grabbed for me, Camille pulling me into a hug, Alek gripping my shoulder. More champagne popped. More voices shouted.

Julian kissed my cheek for a reporter’s camera as I pretended it wasn’t awkward, told me he was proud, then spun Rosie around as he told her mami won.

Everything was loud and bright, a kaleidoscope of sound and motion. My mind raced to catch up, to fill in the blanks where disbelief had been. I was winning. I had won. This was real, and now there was no escaping it.

The detachment that had kept me a step behind vanished, replaced by a flood of sensation and emotion. It was like waking from a dream only to find the world more vivid than I ever imagined.

Rosie wriggled out of Julian's arms, her excitement carrying her straight back to me. "Mami! Mami! We won! We won!"

She launched herself at my legs, squeezing with all her might. I laughed, scooping her up, spinning her in a circle as the room rushed past in a blur. Her laughter rang in my ears, clear and bright, and I believed it. We had won. This was real.

But I didn’t have a lot of time to sink my teeth into the feeling.

The speech. The cameras. The crowd outside waiting for me to step up to the podium. My stomach twisted as I walked onto the stage, the roar of voices crashing over me. They were cheering. Chanting my name.

I stood there, facing the city that had just elected me their DA, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was all too much. Too fast. Too sudden. My head spun, my heart raced, and I wondered if I was about to make a fool of myself in front of all these people.

The floodlights were blinding, the sea of faces endless. I blinked against the brightness, against the overwhelming press of bodies and sound. The chaos of the campaign office had been suffocating, but this was a different kind of chaos.

This was massive. I could feel it in my bones, in my chest, vibrating through me until it was all I could hear. All I could see. All I could feel.

My mouth went dry. My hands were shaking. I tried to breathe through it, to let the disbelief and the fear settle the way they had before. The way Alek said they would.

I felt exposed, standing there on the stage, the whole world watching and waiting. I’d never imagined it would feel like this. Like being swallowed whole by something bigger than myself.

I scanned the crowd, looking for a familiar face.

They kept cheering. Chanting my name over and over until it rang in my ears like a song I couldn’t stop hearing. Like a dream I couldn’t wake from.

Part of me was swept up in this. And the other part thought: Guys, it’s just being DA. It can’t be that exciting.

A deep breath. Another. I could do this. I had done this a hundred times before. But this time, the stakes were higher. The moment was bigger. The energy was overwhelming, and it felt like I might be crushed under it.

I had done this before, but never like this. Never with this many people. Never with this much on the line. The floodlights made it hard to see, but I caught glimpses of them, the supporters who had stayed out all night to hear me speak.

Their signs waved in the air. Their voices carried across the crowd. It should have been terrifying. Should have made me turn and run.

It didn’t.

The disbelief and fear still lingered, coiling tight in my stomach, but there was something else, too. A thrill. A sense of triumph. Of victory.

Of finally, after so many years and so much work, being where I was supposed to be. Where I needed to be. I stood on the stage, my breath coming in quick, shallow bursts, and felt it all closing in. The weight of the moment. The press of anticipation.