Chapter 1

ONE

Dee

With a paintbrush clenched between her fingers, Dee stood in front of her worst enemy: an unfinished painting. She'd already gone through the trouble of adding a neutral tone to the background and sketching out the shapes of the tall industrial buildings. She'd even added the first layer of colours and painted the first defining shapes.

She stepped back from the easel, hoping that a bit of perspective would change her opinion.

It didn't. With all her heart, she hated it. Her paintings of the city were supposed to be full of tension and contrast, showing off the harshness of the modern world and the softness of the people living in it. But what she had in front of her was soulless generic crap. Garbage. Once she threw it away, it would quite literally be garbage.

Her phone vibrated on the table and she contemplated ignoring it. There were only three people who would call her in this day and age and she was actively avoiding two of them. Then again, maybe it was her sister with an emergency.

A glance at her screen confirmed it wasn't. It was her agent.

With a sigh, she dropped her brush in the mucky cup of paint thinner and took her time wiping her hands. She missed the first call but Angela wasn't one to give up easily and kept calling. If there was one thing her agent was good at, it was dealing with fickle artists.

"Yes?" Dee said into the speaker, a little snippier than she intended to be.

"Good afternoon to you too," Angela said, entirely unphased. She was gracious, or obtuse, like that. "How's the baby?"

Dee softened and even managed a smile, the first one of the day. "My new nephew is absolutely adorable. He's the actual cutest."

"That's great. And how's your sister?"

"She looks like a trainwreck but a happy one." Dee could almost feel the imaginary slap against the back of her head if her sibling had heard her say that. Her sister had a tendency to resort to violence when ugly truths reared their head.

A chuckle came through her phone. "That's parenthood. I'm glad to hear your family is doing well. So when are you coming back to the city?"

Dee's gaze travelled to the open window from which she had a decent view of her hometown. It was strange to be back in her childhood home but her parents had insisted that she stayed with them while she was back. Annoyingly, Dee hadn't been able to come up with a good reason to say no, so here she was.

In comparison to the city, Crescent Valley was tiny, wholesome, and absolutely boring. Dee would be lying if she said she didn't miss the impersonal distant vibes of the city where thousands of people lived next to each other, without ever really intersecting.

"My sister needs me a little longer," Dee lied. Her scrappy sister was perfectly capable of looking after her newborn, especially since she was blessed with one of those involved husband types that kept up with all her cravings and whims during the pregnancy.

Angela hummed. "How's the painting going? Are you not missing your studio?"

"No, I have a studio at my parents. And the painting is going—" Dee glanced at her unfinished painting that she wanted to punch or set on fire. "Fine."

Nothing could be further from the truth. She hadn't finished a single painting in the two months she'd spent hovering over her new nephew and intruding on her empty-nest parents' surprisingly busy life. The change of scenery was supposed to help with her block, not make it worse.

"Fine? That doesn't sound good." Angela said in a way only a longtime friend and agent could. "You do know you have a gallery showing soon. Do I need to come down there?"

"No!" Dee's heartbeat quickened. "No, I promise everything is on track."

"Okay, if you say so… I'll let you get to it then."

Dee ended the phone call with a frustrated tap and turned her attention back to the painting. It really did look like shit. She angrily swiped her brush over the canvas, streaking the paint that was already there. A little crack made her freeze and she knew the damage was done before she examined her brush. The wooden handle had splintered and the metal case had come loose.

"Fuck." She tossed the brush across the room. Why did everything have to go wrong at once? And this was her favourite brush too. It wouldn't be hard to replace it but it meant going down to the only craft store in town which was the one place she was trying to avoid.