Chapter 1The Last Canvas

The final painting of my life, the very last stroke I’d ever make, was the wedding portrait of my fiancé and his childhood sweetheart.

The second I finished, my fiancé crushed my hand. It crippled me for life.

* * *

The bodyguards slammed me onto the marble floor, their heavy boots pinning down my right hand—the one that painted.

I writhed in a pain that felt like my bones were melting. “Ethan! The painting is yours! What more do you want?”

My fiancé, Ethan Vance, stood above me, towering and untouchable, his arm casually draped around his little muse, Hailey Carter.

“It’s a masterpiece, Clara,” he purred, inspecting the canvas. “Absolutely perfect. Your hand, however, is a little… messy now.”

I stared up at him, disbelief choking the scream in my throat.

I remembered countless nights when he would gently take the brush from my fingers, his breath warm as he kissed my knuckles. “Guard this hand, my artist. I’m waiting for the day you paint our wedding portrait.”

Now, he kissed Hailey’s temple. “Do you want to hear her beg, Haiz?”

“No! Ethan, stop!”

Panic surged. I twisted on the floor, frantic as a trapped animal. I’d spent years mastering that hand. It was the only part of me that could translate the vivid chaos of my mind into something beautiful. My art was more precious to me than my own life. And now, it was about to be shattered.

“Ethan! I swear I won’t interfere! I’ll disappear! Please, for God's sake, don’t do this to me!”

He laughed—a cold, short sound.

“Clara Reynolds, playing the martyr? You’re the one who schemed to climb the social ladder and latch onto the Vance fortune. You trying to play the noble ex-fiancée doesn’t wash.”

I went mute. I watched, helpless, as Ethan pulled Hailey back, shielding her from what he knew would be a bloody spectacle.

The bodyguard raised the iron pipe high above my hand and brought it down with a sickening CRUNCH!

“AHHHHHHH!!!”

A bolt of pure agony shot up to my brain. My world dissolved into a flash of blinding white. Tears and snot sprayed onto the floor. The bodyguard had to press harder to keep my body from arching off the ground.