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The Artist Who Cheated Death

The Artist Who Cheated Death

Gavin

5.0
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11
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The news of Ava Green' s death rattled the New York art world, just a week after her sold-out exhibition crowned her the city' s newest star at 33. The official report blamed a random car accident, but whispers grew louder when tabloids linked her tech mogul ex-husband, Mark Davis, to rising pop star Sienna Brooks, pictures surfacing the day after Ava died. At her funeral, Mark feigned grief in the front row, while Ava's mother, Sarah, eyed him with a chilling mix of pity and calculation, her comfort a veiled claim. A gallerist eulogized Ava, quoting her final interview: "My art is about the life you live after you realize the first one wasn't yours." No one truly understood her words until it was too late, leaving a haunting question of what secret pain she carried. But death was not the end; Ava awoke, inexplicably, in her lavish marital bed, ten years in the past, to the shock of her 23-year-old self staring back from the mirror.

Introduction

The news of Ava Green' s death rattled the New York art world, just a week after her sold-out exhibition crowned her the city' s newest star at 33.

The official report blamed a random car accident, but whispers grew louder when tabloids linked her tech mogul ex-husband, Mark Davis, to rising pop star Sienna Brooks, pictures surfacing the day after Ava died.

At her funeral, Mark feigned grief in the front row, while Ava's mother, Sarah, eyed him with a chilling mix of pity and calculation, her comfort a veiled claim.

A gallerist eulogized Ava, quoting her final interview: "My art is about the life you live after you realize the first one wasn't yours."

No one truly understood her words until it was too late, leaving a haunting question of what secret pain she carried.

But death was not the end; Ava awoke, inexplicably, in her lavish marital bed, ten years in the past, to the shock of her 23-year-old self staring back from the mirror.

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The sweet scent of vanilla filled our kitchen, a fragile peace before the storm of Lily' s fifth birthday. Then, my husband Mark's phone buzzed with the name "Scarlett," shattering any illusion of our perfect life. Later, I found receipts for a diamond necklace and private school tuition-all for Scarlett' s daughter, not our own. My husband stood by, watching as his mistress' s daughter, Daisy, taunted Lily, proudly displaying gifts from her "Daddy." That night, a news alert flashed across my phone: "Tech Mogul Mark Davis Rekindles Romance with Childhood Sweetheart Scarlett Vance? Seen on a Cozy Family Outing with Vance and Her Look-alike Daughter, Daisy." He walked in at 2 a.m., oblivious to the wreckage he' d left in his wake. "How was your party, Mark?" I asked, holding up the damning picture. He denied nothing, offering flimsy excuses about "responsibility" and "old times' sake." But when I found out he was paying for Daisy' s schooling, my control snapped. "What do you want, Ava? A divorce?" he challenged. "Yes," I said, the word tasting like ash in my mouth. He panicked, pleading for a second chance, weaving a tale of blackmail. "Prove it," I told him, demanding a postnup: if he strayed again, I' d take everything. He signed, thinking he' d bought my silence. But at his company picnic, Scarlett and Daisy appeared, Mark' s secret family in plain sight. He spoke French to Daisy, a warmth he never showed Lily, making our daughter an outsider. "It is incredibly rude to speak in a language you assume others don\'t understand, Scarlett. Especially when you are telling your daughter to boast about things a married man supposedly did with you," I said in flawless French, exposing their cruel charade. His anger, however, was for me and our crying daughter. "You\'re making a scene!" he hissed. "And Lily, for God\'s sake, stop crying. It\'s embarrassing." That was the end. I walked away, Lily' s hand in mine, knowing he had made his choice.

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