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 Maia’s

this art duel to stir exactly this reaction, to draw out recognition from those who

close to the Cooper family and had lived with them for some time, so Kiley and Mariana would

audience and judges, Maia gestured to her work. “This is A Mother’s Timeless Love,” she said, her voice soft but clear. “It captures a mother gazing at her child, her love eternal, watching over

breath, then erupted. Applause crashed

???????? ??????

expected Maia to conjure a woman she had

They saw their own mothers in Maia’s work, their love

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

turned to Chris, her smile gentle but sure. “Chris, this

for this man?” someone muttered,

is she implying? Is she painting