The Stolen Legacy

The scent of fresh paint used to be my sanctuary, a promise of a future forged in art alongside Liam, my fiancé, and Chloe, my adoptive sister.

But that future shattered the moment I saw my masterpiece, the one I' d poured my soul into for six months, on an easel between them, while Liam declared Chloe "a true genius."

They left me in the gallery, a ghost in my own stolen dreams, my heart meticulously dismantled. I died alone, forgotten, my name erased from my own work, replaced by Chloe' s.

Now, I'm back, returned to the critical moment before it all went wrong, eighteen years old, a month before the exhibition, before everything was stolen.

When Liam' s name lit up my phone, instead of fluttering with excitement, my past life flashed before my eyes-the betrayal, the theft, the illness that ended me.