Chapter 5

Conor's face, usually a mask of control, flickered. A flash of surprise, then something unreadable, crossed his features. Before he could respond, the emergency lights, which had been flickering erratically, suddenly blazed back to full power. The sudden flood of light was blinding, jarring.

The crowd, startled by the abrupt change, surged forward, a wave of bodies pushing and jostling. I was caught in the crush, shoved violently from behind. A sharp pain shot through my already injured ankle. I cried out, losing my balance.

"Jacey!" Hillery's voice was a high-pitched shriek, but her concern was for herself. She stumbled, and Conor, with lightning speed, wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close, shielding her with his body from the jostling crowd. His eyes, fixed on her, were filled with frantic worry. He didn't even glance at me as I fell.

I hit the polished marble floor with a sickening thud, a fresh wave of pain coursing through my ankle. My head hit something hard, and the world spun. Before I could fully regain my bearings, a triumphant announcement boomed over the loudspeakers, cutting through the chaos.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Now, for the moment you've all been waiting for! The unveiling of the grand prize for tonight's charity auction!"

A velvet curtain swished open, revealing a spotlighted pedestal. On it, gleaming under the bright lights, was a small, ornate music box. My breath caught. My stomach clenched. It was Alina' s music box. The one she' d made when she was twelve, hand-painted with constellations and tiny, secret messages in a language only she and I understood. It was priceless, irreplaceable, steeped in our shared history, a piece of our childhood trauma. How could it be here?

"And the brilliant artist behind this exquisite piece," the announcer continued, his voice swelling with drama, "is none other than the reclusive genius, 'Eclipse'!"

Gasps rippled through the crowd. "Eclipse," the anonymous artist whose ethereal, deeply symbolic works had taken the art world by storm. Alina, my sister. She was Eclipse. She had always been Eclipse. But she was dead.

"And now," the announcer declared, a flourish in his voice, "please welcome the woman of the hour, the visionary artist herself, Miss Hillery Hudson!"

Hillery, still clinging to Conor's arm, stepped forward, a beatific smile on her face, accepting the thunderous applause as if it were her due. She curtsied, her gaze sweeping over the audience, basking in the adulation.

A cold, white-hot rage consumed me. This wasn't just a stolen identity; it was a desecration. Hillery, the untalented, manipulative fraud, claiming my sister's legacy, my sister's soul.

"No!" I screamed, pushing myself up from the floor, ignoring the searing pain in my ankle, the throbbing in my head. "That's a lie! She's not Eclipse! Alina was Eclipse! My sister! She's a fraud!"

I stumbled forward, fueled by a desperate need to expose the truth, to reclaim Alina' s honor. But before I could take another step, a sharp, sudden blow slammed into the back of my head. The world exploded in a kaleidoscope of stars. My knees buckled. I felt myself falling, falling into a black abyss.

Just before consciousness completely faded, I felt strong arms catch me. A familiar scent, a mixture of expensive cologne and something else, something uniquely his, enveloped me. It was Conor. Even in my fading state, I knew his scent, his touch. He caught me. But why?

When I next opened my eyes, I was lying on a plush sofa in a dimly lit, private room. The throbbing in my head was a dull ache now, my ankle still protesting. Conor sat at a desk across the room, his back to me, talking quietly on the phone, his voice calm, efficient. "Yes, prepare the statement. Deny everything. It was a misunderstanding. Jacey is... unwell."

Unwell. The word echoed in my head, cold and dismissive. He was already spinning the narrative, painting me as the delusional, unstable wife.

I tried to push myself up, a fresh wave of anger giving me strength. "Let me go," I rasped, my voice hoarse. "I need to expose her!"

Conor hung up the phone, slowly turned, his face placid, unreadable. He walked over to me, pushing me gently back down when I tried to rise again. "Jacey, stop. You're not well. You hit your head, and your ankle is worse."

"Not well?" I scoffed, a bitter laugh escaping my lips. "I'm perfectly well! It's her who's not well! She's a liar! A thief! She's claiming Alina's work, Conor! Don't you understand? That music box... it was Alina's! She made it! It was hers, not Hillery's!" My voice rose with each word, thick with righteous fury.

He listened, as always, with that same unnerving patience. His eyes held no surprise, no shock, no indignation. Just a practiced calm.

"I'm going to tell everyone," I vowed, my voice trembling with conviction. "I'm going to tell the world what she's done! What you've done! You're complicit, Conor! You know the truth!"

He simply watched me, his gaze unblinking. No denial, no outrage. Just a profound, unsettling stillness. And in that stillness, I saw it. The confirmation I had been dreading. He knew. He had always known.

My mind reeled, a torrent of memories flooding my brain. The long conversations I' d had with him, pouring out my heart about Alina, about Eclipse. I' d told him everything: Alina' s reclusive nature, her secret pen name, the childhood trauma that fueled her art, our shared claustrophobia, her early death, the hidden vault of her masterpieces. I had trusted him with the most sacred parts of my past, with the memory of my brilliant, lost sister. I had shown him Alina's sketches, her journals, her unique artistic signature. I had even talked about the music box, its intricate details, the constellations she had drawn from memory while we were trapped together.

He had listened, patiently, intently. I had thought he was genuinely interested, that he understood the depth of my grief, the preciousness of Alina's legacy. But he hadn't. He had been gathering information. Intel. Everything I had shared, every vulnerable detail, he had used. He had handed it all to Hillery, a blueprint for her deception. He had allowed her to steal my sister' s soul, to parade it as her own.

"You knew," I whispered, the words catching in my throat, each one a shard of glass. "You knew all along. You gave her everything, didn't you? My sister's life... her art... you let her take it all." My voice cracked, raw with betrayal.

He reached out, his hand slowly rising towards me, his expression almost sympathetic. "Jacey, you're not thinking straight. You're overwrought. We can discuss this when you're calmer. I'll get you a sedative. You need to rest." He was trying to medicate my truth, to dismiss my pain as hysteria.

"No!" I cried, recoiling from his touch. "Don't you dare! You don't get to do that! You don't get to control my mind! Tell me, Conor! Tell me what she is to you, that you would betray me, betray Alina, like this?"

He paused, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Hillery is my family. She needs my protection." His voice was firm, unwavering.

"Protection?" I laughed, a harsh, brittle sound. "Protection from what? From her own lies? What about me, Conor? What about my protection? What about Alina's legacy? What about the truth?"

"Jacey, you're being unreasonable," he said, his voice tightening. "You're clearly distressed. Your imagination is running wild." He leaned in, his voice dropping to a low, intimate tone. "I saw you at the ball, with Hillery. That kiss... I saw it, Conor. Don't you dare try to deny it."

His face, for the first time, lost its composure. A flicker of panic, of something akin to fear, crossed his eyes. He quickly masked it, but the damage was done. The lie had been exposed. The carefully constructed façade had crumbled.