AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“It’s not just thoughts,” I said. “They’re real people and I never knew. Never suspected.”
“How could you when they’re keeping you drunk and filling your head with God-knows-what? That’s what they do. If it were easy to ignore them, more people would. But it has to stop, Cole. Do you hear me? Come here if you have to but get away from them. Immediately.”
“And then what?” I asked helplessly. “What happens to Ambri?”
“Honestly, I don’t know,” Lucy said. “But you have to stay in the light, Cole. That’s the only chance he has to find his way back to you.”
Days bled from one into the next.
I couldn’t leave London. Running away felt wrong. What if Ambri needed me and I wasn’t there? Moreover, running away from shit never got me anywhere. If he was facing something horrible, I would, too. I’d face it and fight. I tossed all the booze down the sink and cleaned up the flat and tried to stay in the light.
My sleep was still shit—the whispers in my head kept at it, but they’d changed their tune. Instead of whispering that I was an imposter, and the critics were going to wise up any day, they wracked me with doubt.
What if Lucy had it all wrong?
What if Ambri was in cahoots with the demons?
What if he meant what he said in the letter?
What if he never loved me?
He never said it, after all. I laid my heart bare to him and he didn’t say a word.
You’re letting the fear spoil what you know to be true,Liebling. Don’t let it.
But all I knew was fear. Fear for what Ambri might be suffering, and that fear was the doorway that let those thoughts march right in.
Ambri had been right about that. The sinister whispering of demons didn’t come from nothing. They built up what was already there—our own natural self-doubt, fears, worries—and gorged on them.
I had to cut them off, so I began the final painting.
I poured my pain and love into the work, trying my best to capture Ambri as I’d seen him at the windowsill in that beautiful moment. I called itMorning Light,and even before it was finished, I knew it was the best thing I’d ever done or would ever do.
Even as the tears fell, I smiled and set my brush down.
“I love you, Ambri. Come back to me. Please…come back to me.”
But there was only the quiet, and the sun coming in through the window like a promise.
Christie’s auctioned off my first collection, and Jane invited me to lunch to discuss the details. I accepted and met her at La Pergola, going through the motions. The moment I saw Jane at the restaurant, I could tell she was bursting with good news.
“The tour was a smashing success, to say the least,” she said over food I didn’t have the appetite to eat. “If you recall, the appraiser’s estimate was three million. I got the final number from Christie’s today. Are you ready for this?”
“Sure.”
“Your first collection sold for nearly seven million.Seven, Cole.”
“Holy shit,” I said. “That’s a big number.”
“It’s a glorious number, but I think it’s going to pale in comparison to the final sales price of your next collection. I want to sell it through Gallery Decora this time, instead of an auction house. Are you almost finished?”
“Yeah. A few more days.”
“Marvelous. I cannot wait to see it. I know it will cement your name in the annals of the art world for the rest of time.”
But will it bring Ambri back?
“That’s great, Jane. Thanks.”
