Her Lies, His Unbreakable Spirit

was a blur of shaking and cold sweats. I fumbled with my keys, my hands too weak to work properly, and practically fell i

tled in my bones after I overused my ability. The sun was streaming through the huge windows

My hands still trembled. Every part of me ached. I sank back o

ntainer of soup from my favorite deli. "Hey," she said, her voice

ront of me, her face a picture o

as so good, so practiced. But I could s

she said, opening the con

. She was trying to smooth it over, to pull me back into the comfortable lie we had been

this," she said, her voice bright with real excite

ectrifies with Groundbreaking Stage Show." And below it, a picture. It was a photo of Chloe and Mark, taken after the show.

r, may have been the jaw-dropping light installation, a tech

that I had poured out onto that stage, and she had stamped her name on it. She used me to get him a

spy, but it was steady. "You put your ga

s a brilliant marketing move. The ga

s feeling heavy and useless. "That lig

t was businesslike now. "And it worked. Mark needed thi

old and sharp. "What are you saying?" I

tly. "I'm sorry, I should have told you sooner, but it

ceholder. A convenient, talented placeholder who could fund her real love's dreams. The whole lif

My voice was stronger now, fueled by a decade of deception. "I'm done. I'm getting my things and I am walking out that door, and you will n

re would you go?" She stood up and walked toward me, her eyes filled with a c

. A beautiful, talented freak, but a freak nonetheless. I'm the only one in the wor

just my partner, she was my keepe

e shaking with rage. "I would r

't call Mark this time. She called the building's security. "Yes, I need assista

taking anything. Everything in this apartment, you have bec

s, and watched them take my paintings off the wall. The canvases I had poured my soul into were handled like inventory. They packed my clothes, my books, every trace of