How a Dying Woman Rewrote Her Epilogue

4:00 PM.

Outside, the sky hung heavy and gray, and a sharp wind rattled the windowpanes.

Elodie's phone buzzed again—it was her grandmother calling.

"Gran, is everything alright?"

Rosemary hardly ever called her during work hours, not unless something urgent had come up.

There was a pause on the other end before Rosemary finally said, "Elodie, remember I mentioned selling the house a while ago? You wouldn't let me, so instead, I've put your mother's old, closed-down art gallery on the market. It's just sitting there collecting dust, and I thought it'd be better to get you some cash for it..."

She felt Elodie ought to know.

Life in the Silverstein family hadn't been easy for Elodie. Rosemary couldn't bear to see her only granddaughter looked down on, and she was certain Elodie's mother would have agreed.

Elodie's expression shifted.

So that call earlier-it was real.

"Gran, you don't need to worry about whether I have enough money. I'm working now, and my yearly bonus will be more than enough. There's no need to sell the gallery."

She knew her grandmother meant well—she simply feared Elodie would have no standing in the Silverstein family and wanted to give her something solid to hold onto.

Rosemary hesitated, then pressed on, "But the buyer's really interested and offered a good price. Maybe you could at least go take a look?"

brow. "Alright, I'll go talk to

sighed, saying

she'd decided to sell the gallery instead to give Elodie a little security. After all, you can't take these things with

gathered her things, called back the buyer, got

practiced smile. "Ms. Thorne, the buyer is quite wealthy. You'll

Elodie didn't respond.

until she was led into the meeting

the

her fists

her, unhurried, his gaze cool. "Got time to

her deep, and suddenly she understood why he'd called earlier that

beside him were Sylvie and Maurice, who was idly scrolling

both looked up as Elodie entered; Sylvie seemed unsurprised, but Maurice raised an

took a slow, steadying breath and walked over. "You're the ones looking to buy

shook his head. "Not me. It's Sylvie-she's

back dozens of paintings from abroad, and needed a permanent home for them. Sylvie,

gallery was the simplest

was surprised to discover the seller was

went even paler, cold air filling

seen this coming at

"My mother really likes

a thin line, eyes fixed