Rising from the Ashes The Heiress They Tried to Erase

Chapter 825:

Mariana’s hands shook, her brush slipping from her fingers to clatter on the floor. She knew that face. How could she not?

“Is that… Nicola?” Mariana’s voice climbed, sharp with disbelief. She took two unsteady steps toward Maia’s canvas, her heart pounding.

Her reaction startled everyone. “How could you know her face? Nicola passed years ago. You were a child then — no way you saw her!” Her words tumbled out, frantic, until they snagged in her throat.

Her eyes, now rimmed with red, flicked to Chris. Had he shown Maia a photo of his mother?

But Chris had once confessed that he barely recalled his mother’s face, with no pictures to jog his memory. So how?

Mariana’s mind reeled, questions piling up. What tied Maia to Chris? She pushed the thought away, unwilling to chase it further.

Maia set her brush down with deliberate grace, a faint smile playing on her lips. “Your reaction confirms it,” she said, her voice steady. “I painted her true. Nicola, was it? A name that carries weight, like a whisper from the past.”

— offered further proof. The woman on

this art duel to stir exactly

once been close to the Cooper family and had lived with them for some

to her work. “This is A Mother’s Timeless Love,” she said, her voice soft but clear. “It captures a mother gazing

erupted. Applause crashed like waves, relentless and

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expected Maia to conjure a woman she had never met with

eyes. Some bowed their heads, sleeves brushing away quiet sobs. They saw their own mothers in

beside Maia’s. It was not just technique — Maia’s work carried a raw, heartfelt truth that seized

gentle but

created the painting for this man?” someone muttered, curiosity lacing

she implying? Is she painting this gentleman’s