Chapter 1

The rejection email glowed on my laptop screen, another polite "no" in a sea of them. It was from a small downtown gallery, the kind of place that might have taken a chance on my work a few years ago. Now, they wanted art that was "more commercially viable." It was a clean, corporate way of saying my art didn't sell.

I closed the laptop and the screen went black, reflecting my own tired face back at me. My studio apartment was small, the rent was late, and the smell of turpentine was a permanent part of the air. This was my life, a talented but struggling artist, a description that felt more and more like a bad joke.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. My father was a renowned art collector, a man whose name opened doors in every major gallery in the country. But those doors never opened for me. They opened for Olivia.

My older sister, Olivia, was perfect. Her art was perfect, too. It was conventional, beautiful, and most importantly, marketable. Our father had adored it, and her. He would stand in front of her polished landscapes and praise her technique, her understanding of the market, her brilliant future. Then he would walk past my canvases, full of abstract shapes and raw, messy emotion, and his face would tighten. "I just don't understand what you're trying to say, Sarah," he'd murmur before moving on.

My mother, a quiet woman who lived in the shadow of my father' s big personality, would watch these exchanges with a pained look. She'd try to mediate, to say something kind about my use of color, but her voice was always drowned out. In the end, she always sided with him. It was easier.

Now Dad was gone, six months already, and the silence he left behind was deafening. The will was the final testament to his favoritism. Everything went to Olivia. The grand house, the stock portfolio, and the entire, priceless art collection. He left me nothing, not even a mention. It was a final, public dismissal of me as his daughter, as an artist.

My phone vibrated on the cluttered table next to me. It was my mother. I hadn't spoken to her much since the funeral. The conversations were always strained, full of things we couldn't say.

"Sarah?" Her voice was thin, reedy, like a signal from a long way off.

"Hi, Mom. Is everything okay?"

"I... I don't know." She paused, and I could hear her shallow breathing. "It's about the will, dear. Your father..." She trailed off again. "There's something not right. He... he wasn't himself at the end. Olivia and David were with him all the time."

David was Olivia's fiancé, an ambitious man with a smile as smooth and hard as polished stone.

"Mom, what are you trying to say?" I asked, my own voice flat. I was too tired for this, too tired for hints and whispers.

"He kept talking about a surprise. For you," she whispered, her voice cracking. "He said... he said everyone would finally see. Then Olivia told me the doctors said he was confused. That he was hallucinating."

I heard a noise in the background, the sharp, clear voice of my sister. "Mother, who are you talking to? The doctor said you need to rest."

The line went dead.

I stared at the phone, a cold knot tightening in my stomach. A secret? A surprise? It sounded like the wishful thinking of a guilty conscience. My father had made his feelings for me and my art perfectly clear my entire life. I was the disappointment. Olivia was the star. End of story. I dismissed it, pushing the conversation out of my mind. It was easier than holding onto a sliver of false hope.

A week later, I was delivering a small commission, a portrait for a client, to an office building downtown. As I was leaving, I saw a familiar face coming out of a high-end gallery on the ground floor. It was Arthur Sterling, a gallery owner who had been a close friend of my father' s for decades. He was older now, with a kind, wrinkled face.

"Sarah? Is that you?" he called out, his eyes lighting up.

"Mr. Sterling. It's good to see you."

"You too, my dear. It's been too long. I was so sorry to hear about your father." He put a gentle hand on my arm. "He was a great man. Complex, but great. He spoke of you often, you know."

I must have looked surprised, because he chuckled. "Oh, yes. Especially in the last few years. He was so proud of your work."

I felt a bitter laugh escape my lips. "Proud? Mr. Sterling, my father thought my art was a joke. He left everything to Olivia because her work was the only thing he valued."

Arthur Sterling's smile faded. He looked at me, his expression serious. "That's not true, Sarah. That's not true at all. Your father was a complicated man. He didn't know how to show his feelings, especially when he was afraid of them." He glanced around the busy lobby. "Walk with me."

We stepped out into the crisp afternoon air.

"Your father... he didn't understand your art at first," Mr. Sterling began, choosing his words carefully. "It was too emotional for him, too raw. It made him feel things he preferred to keep locked away. But he couldn't look away from it, either. He saw the talent. He saw the truth in it."

I stopped walking, staring at him. "What are you talking about?"

"He started collecting your work, Sarah. Your early pieces. The ones you sold at those small student shows in college, the ones you thought nobody noticed."

My mind went blank. I couldn't process the words. "No. That's impossible. He never bought anything from me."

"Not under his own name," Mr. Sterling said softly. "He used a pseudonym. 'A. North.' He didn't want you to know. He was building a collection, a complete retrospective of your early development as an artist. He told me his plan. He was going to surprise you with it one day, a massive solo exhibition. He wanted to show the world he'd been your biggest believer all along."

The world seemed to tilt on its axis. Every memory I had of my father's dismissal, every cold comment, every time he turned away from my work-it all fractured. A. North. I remembered that name. A mysterious buyer who had purchased five of my paintings from my senior thesis show. I was so broke at the time, I didn't question it. I was just grateful for the money.

"He wanted to... surprise me?" The words felt foreign in my mouth.

"He was afraid," Mr. Sterling said. "Afraid of admitting he'd been wrong, afraid of that powerful emotion in your work. So he did it his own way, in secret. The will... it doesn't make any sense, knowing what I know. He was so excited about his plan."

The cryptic phone call from my mother. Her words about a surprise. The sudden rush of Olivia and David controlling everything at the end. It wasn't my mother's wishful thinking. It was real.

My perception of my family, of my entire life, shattered into a million pieces. For twenty-eight years, I had believed a lie. I had built my identity around being the unloved, unseen daughter. And it was all a lie.

But if my father admired my work, if he was planning to reveal it, then the will leaving everything to Olivia was more than just an insult. It was a theft.

Rage, cold and sharp, cut through my shock. It wasn't just about a broken heart anymore. It was about my art. My legacy. Olivia and her slick fiancé hadn't just manipulated a dying man. They were trying to erase me.

I looked at Mr. Sterling, my eyes hardening. The struggling, adrift artist was gone. In her place was a woman fueled by a burning need for the truth.

"They're planning something," I said, my voice low and steady. "Olivia and David. An auction. For 'newly discovered' works from my father's collection."

Mr. Sterling's eyes widened in understanding. "Oh, no."

"Oh, yes," I said. A bitter, angry smile touched my lips. "They're not just going to sell his collection. They're going to sell my art. As his."

I would not let that happen. The fight for my father's love was over, but the fight for my art, for my truth, had just begun.