Maya stood outside the glass doors of The Ardent Gallery, Sebastian Cole's pride and playground. Her reflection stared back at her—unsure, fragile… but standing tall anyway.
Inside, the gallery buzzed with polite conversation and clinking glasses. A new exhibit had just opened—"Legacies in Ink."
Fitting.
She slipped in, unnoticed, just another art lover among the elite. Her heart thundered as she scanned the room for him. But instead, her eyes landed on something else.
A painting.
Small. Framed in dark wood. Tucked away in the corner.
It was one of her mother's.
Maya froze.
Her mother's signature—L.M. Reyes—etched faintly in the corner.
She hadn't seen this piece before. A stormy sky. A lone figure standing at the edge of a cliff. It bled emotion. Pain. Defiance.
And then a voice behind her:
> "She painted that the night before she disappeared."
Maya turned slowly.
Sebastian.
He stood just close enough to command the space between them, his presence like cold steel wrapped in velvet.
> "Disappeared?" she asked, voice calm.
> "Didn't she?" he replied. "One day, she was gone. Just like that."
He smiled, but his eyes were unreadable.
> "Funny," Maya said. "She left behind more than you expected."
His gaze sharpened for a split second—then softened again.
> "You remind me of her. That's dangerous."
> "Maybe I'm not afraid of danger."
> "You should be."
---
Later that night, Maya sat at her desk, the photo of the painting spread out beside her, and a journal open in front of her. She finally started writing—not for anyone else, but for herself. For her mother.
The page read:
"I will finish what you started. I will find the truth. And I won't disappear."