Wait…Why Did Everyone I Love Suddenly Call Me a Bitch?! novel Chapter 69

Chapter 10

One year later, I’m sitting by the Seine in Paris with my easel, putting the final touches on my graduation exhibition piece.

It’s a painting of a courtyard with a crabapple tree in full bloom.

Under the tree, a middle-aged couple sits close together, and behind them stands a young woman with the brightest smile.

I called it Home,

This past year, I came to France after all. Got into one of the best art schools here.

Mom’s the one who pushed me to go.

She said: “Sloane, go do what you love. Chase your dreams. Home will always be here waiting for you.”

My parents came with me. We rent this cozy apartment together. They spend their days trying to master French pastries and taking walks in the park nearby.

Life’s been peaceful. Good.

Mom’s recovered incredibly well. She walks a little slow still, but otherwise? You’d never know what she went through.

My graduation show was a huge success.

That painting, Home, got bought by some mystery collector for serious money.

After the exhibition, my advisor-this legendary professor in the art world-called me into his office.

He handed me an envelope.

“Sloane, someone from your country asked me to give you this. Before the show started.”

I took it, confused. No name on it.

Inside was just a card and a VIP invitation to a gallery.

The card had this elegant handwriting:

[Sloane,

Congratulations. Your art is beautiful-so full of life.

I bought your painting.]

I froze.

Following the address on the invitation, I found this private gallery right in the heart of the city.

Inside, it only showed one artist’s work-

Mine.

Everything from my earliest commercial illustrations to my later landscape sketches to every piece from this graduation show-all carefully

12:48

Wait… Why Did Everyone I Love Suddenly Call Me a Bitch?!

framed and displayed.

At the very end of the gallery hung the Home.

A man in a casual blazer stood with his back to me, looking at the painting.

When he heard my footsteps, he turned around.

Warm features. Bright eyes. A gentle smile.

“Hello, Ms. Carter,” he said. “I’m Elliot. Your… biggest fan.”

I stared at him, caught completely off guard.

He smiled and pointed at the Home.

“I saw your painting a few years back. In some gallery in the States. And I just… I couldn’t walk away. I stood there staring at it. I could feel it-whoever painted this loved somebody so fucking much.”

“I tried to find you after that. But you were gone. Everything deleted. Then someone told me you were doing a show here.”

“So I bought it all. Every painting. And opened this gallery.”

He stepped up close.

“Sloane, you’re so talented. You really are. But you can’t stay stuck in the past. You’ve got more to give than this.”

Right then, looking into his sincere eyes, surrounded by walls covered in my own work, my vision blurred with tears.

Turned out, all this time, someone had been quietly watching. Believing in me. Cheering me on.

Turned out, I’d never been fighting alone.

I smiled at him-a real, bright, genuine smile.

“Thank you, Elliot.”

That day, the Paris sunlight felt unbelievably warm.

I knew my life had finally turned to a brand-new page.

All those wounds and betrayals from before had become dust in the past.

I’d climbed out of that abyss.

Covered in scars, but also covered in glory.

That spring, the crabapple petals that had once fallen and withered bloomed again under a foreign sun.

And this time, they’d keep blooming,

Forever.

12:48

(0)

Wait… Why Did Everyone I Love Suddenly Call Me a Bitch?!

(0)