< Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Nadia’s POV
The reception hall emptied out.
Mom stopped near the entrance and turned around.
Claim 50 Coins By Check in
MRINE
‘Wait.” She looked left, then right. “Where’s Nadia?”
Derek scanned the crowd and came up empty. He crossed his arms. “Probably curled up in some corner somewhere. You know how she gets.
Mom exhaled slowly. Her expression shifted – something softer trying to push through. “Maybe we were too hard on her today. After everything she went through in that accident.”
Derek put a hand on her shoulder. “Mom. Relax. I’ll call her and apologize.” He pulled out his phone and dialed.
Nothing. Straight to voicemail.
Before he could try again, Serena plucked the phone out of his hand.
Dad. Mom.” Her voice was smooth and easy, like she was calming down children. “Stop worrying about Nadia. We’re going to be ate for the gala.”
That was all it took.
Diane blinked once and the concern evaporated off her face. She turned toward the car.
The ride was quiet. Wrong kind of quiet. None of them had their usual energy, the kind that comes with a night you’ve been ooking forward to for weeks.
Then Mom’s phone rang.
Jnknown number.
he picked up anyway.
Is this Ms. Nadia Calloway’s mother?”
Diane stiffened. ‘Yes. Who is this?”
A pause. A slow exhale on the other end. Then –
Your daughter, Nadia Calloway, was found collapsed outside the estate approximately thirty minutes ago. By the time paramedics rrived- A beat. “She was already gone.”
The words landed.
Mom’s brain rejected them.
What?” Her voice climbed sharp and fast. “Is this some kind of sick joke? My daughter was just standing right in front of me.”
Every head in the car turned.
Cole hit the brakes.
Serena moved the fastest. She snatched the phone straight out of Diane’s hand.
What did you just say?” Her voice cracked. “She’s dead? That’s not real. Tell me that’s not real – answer me!”
The person on the other end went flat. “You’ll know when you get to the hospital.”
Click.
The call dropped.
< Chapter 4
Nobody moved.
Claim 50 Coins By Check in
The car just sat there in the middle of the road. No one spoke. No one turned on the radio. The only sound was breathing – unsteady, sharp, the kind that comes when the body can’t decide whether to cry or scream.
Mom broke first.
She pressed both hands over her mouth, but the sound got out anyway. “No. No, she can’t – how did this-how did she –
Dad’s hand shot to Cole’s shoulder. Turn around. Hospital. Now.”
Serena opened her mouth.
Closed it.
Whatever she was going to say about the gala, she swallowed it. She turned her face to the window and didn’t say another word.
The car peeled out.
The hospital came up fast.
Mom and Dad barely made it out of the car. Derek caught them both, one arm around each, and walked them through the sliding
doors.
The morgue was cold.
Cole asked the doctor – his voice splitting open on the first syllable. “What – what was the cause?”
The doctor looked tired. The kind of tired that comes from delivering this kind of news too many times. “The damage from the car accident was severe. Ms. Calloway’s internal organs never fully recovered. This was… inevitable.”
Serena’s hand flew to her mouth.
Why didn’t she tell us?” Her voice broke on cue, tears spilling perfect and clean down her face. “If she had said something – if we’d <nown – I never would have – I wouldn’t have -” She stopped. Shook her head. “If I had known she was dying, I never would have
>een with Cole.”
Derek’s voice came out low and rough. “Stop. This isn’t your fault. It’s just – it’s her fate. She was in the wrong seat that day.”
His eyes were wet.
His throat worked hard.
Cole didn’t say a word.
de crouched down near the stretcher, elbows on his knees, both hands pressing against the sides of his head. His knuckles went white. He stared at the floor like it had answers.
No.” The word came out like something torn. “No, it’s my fault. If I had – if I’d gotten to her first – she wouldn’t have been hurt at
dl.”
He kept saying it.
Over and over, rocking slightly, voice dropping lower each time, like a prayer he already knew wasn’t going to be answered.
Serena watched him.
Something moved behind her eyes. Not grief. Something colder. Something that made the back of my neck go cold even from where I floated beside them, watching all of it.
Russell scrubbed his face with both hands. His voice was barely holding. “Serena. Go to the gala. We’ll take care of everything here.”
Derek nodded. “Your first award. You can’t skip it.”
I’m not going. Serena grabbed my hand – my still, cold hand – and held on with both of hers. I’m staying. I need to be here. For
< Chapter 4
Nadia’s final goodbye.”
My family looked at her like she’d just said the most beautiful thing they’d ever heard.
Russell pulled her into his arms. He was crying openly now, shoulders shaking.
You’re such a good girl,” he managed. “From now on you’re our only daughter.”
Serena buried her face in his chest.
The tears kept falling.
But the second they turned away –
Her face went blank.
Completely blank. Like someone had flipped a switch.
Claim 50 Coins By Check in
She pulled out her phone, thumbed to her social media, and posted a photo of us together. The caption read:
Nadia, may your next life bring you nothing but happiness.
The media had been tearing her apart all night for missing the gala.
by morning, they’d reversed entirely. Prodigy artist. Devoted sister. Too heartbroken to attend her own ceremony. The kind of
eadline that makes people cry in comment sections.
jerena scrolled through the praise without blinking.
Not a flicker of warmth. Not a single real smile.
he went to her room and spread out the last two paintings I’d finished before I died. Looked at them for a long time.
Then she picked up the black-and-white portrait.
fer mouth curved just slightly.
he called every major outlet she knew. Announced a grand funeral. Declared she would present her final masterpiece there- and hen retire from painting permanently, out of grief.
prodigy who appeared from nowhere and vanished just as fast.
hat story broke the internet by sunrise.
The day of the funeral, Whitmore Chapel was packed before the doors even opened.
‘eople lined the steps outside. Camera crews set up on both sides of the walkway.
Cole stood in front of my memorial portrait and didn’t move.
de just… stood there.
He looked at my face in that photograph until his eyes stopped focusing. His chest rose and fell too slow, too careful, like he was counting each breath to keep from losing them.
floated beside him.
My heart was quiet.
watched Serena’s eyes go dark as she turned away from him and moved toward the covered canvas at the front of the room.
The spotlights hit her from every angle.
She gripped the white cloth.
Pulled.
< Chapter 4
The painting underneath made the room go completely silent.
Claim 50 Coins By Check in
A burned woman. Hollow eyes. Expression locked somewhere between agony and nothing at all. Staring out at a distance she couldn’t reach.
It was devastating.
It was technically flawless.
It was mine.
Serena stood beside it and let the silence breathe for exactly the right number of seconds.
Then she spoke.
This piece,” she said softly, “is dedicated to my dearest sister.”
The applause that broke out was thunderous. It bounced off the chapel walls and rolled through the crowd in waves.
And then –
A figure stepped out from the back of the room.
He moved through the crowd with quiet purpose, a man in a dark suit, until he was standing just a few feet from Serena.
He looked at her.
Ms. Serena Calloway.” His voice was clear and calm and carried across the entire room. “Your love for your sister is truly moving.”
He paused.
In return – He reached into his jacket. “Ms. Nadia Calloway has left a gift especially for you.”
