A Mother's Final Portrait

Jessica's mother, a renowned police portrait artist, prioritizes her other daughter's celebration over a desperate plea for help. Dismissing her child's kidnapping as a cruel prank, she refuses to intervene, leading to Jessica's brutal death. When tasked with reconstructing a victim's face from remains, the mother is horrified to see her own daughter's features emerge. This modern horror mystery follows a woman's descent into guilt as she realizes her hatred cost her daughter's life.

Chapters

Chapter 2

Unloved

Yvonne noticed the disgust my mother had for me, and a small smile curled her lips. She raised her head and asked in feigned innocence, "What would you do if I was kidnapped, Mom?"

My mother put down what she was holding and quickly approached Yvonne. Then, she enunciated solemnly, "I will not let that happen to you. If it does, I will make a portrait of the kidnapper the first chance I get and save you, trust me."

Yvonne hugged Mom's arm and giggled cutely. "You're the best, Mom. Still, Jessica is also your daughter. We can forgive her for lying this time, can't we?"

She looked so genuine. That look on her face took me back to three years ago. I had an important piano competition coming up, and I desperately wished for my mother to come.

I wanted to show that I was good at something. I wanted to show that I could make her proud, too.

I just wanted her to know I was no omen. I organized and reorganized my words before I made the call, and as carefully as a scared kitten afraid of abandonment, I made my request.

My mother said she would come. I held my phone as tightly as I could and leaped with excitement. However, my mother called and said she couldn't make it on the day of the performance.

"Eve's sick, and I can't leave her alone. You can handle the competition yourself."

It was a video call, and Yvonne looked pale. She looked at me apologetically. "Sorry, Jessica. I'm not feeling too good. You've always been the independent one, but I can't do anything without Mom. Good luck with the competition."

I looked at the other kids and their parents. Then I cried. All of them were holding bouquets and looked like they were the proudest parents ever. They had encouragement in their eyes and expected great things from their children.

My mother, on the other hand, couldn't even bother to remember the competitions I joined. I was never important to her.

When the competition came to an end, I scrolled my phone and saw a new status from Yvonne. 'It's just a little cold, but Mom's so worried about it. She wouldn't let me leave her sight. I'm the happiest girl ever.'

The picture in the post was of our mother making soup for her. Pain washed over me, creeping all over my heart. For some reason, Yvonne could easily get our mother's love, the one thing I yearned for.

I did everything I could and pulled every single trick in the book, but I couldn't even get a shred of my mother's love. I was unloved.

Continue to next part

Driven by a desire to save money, a tenant moves into a suspiciously inexpensive apartment despite knowing a previous resident died there. The thin walls of the building offer no privacy, forcing the protagonist to endure the unsettling sounds of a woman moaning in the adjacent unit every single night. However, the situation turns chilling when another neighbor reveals that the apartment next door is actually vacant, leaving the tenant to face a terrifying mystery.

Horror Modern Mystery

8.3

Fins of Farewell

8.3

Once a mermaid princess, the protagonist abandoned the ocean for Trevon Chapman, the man who rescued her from a fisherman’s cruelty. After five years of devotion, their marriage shatters when Trevon demands her tail to save his dying childhood sweetheart, Corinne. Despite her pleas, he forcibly subjects her to surgery, leaving her wheelchair-bound and broken. Labeled a monster by the man she loved, she demands a divorce. However, Trevon’s cruelty backfires when she regains her true form and escapes back to the depths, leaving him in a state of desperate, late-stage regret.

Action Fantasy Horror Modern Mystery Romance

9.3

His Political Lie, My Shattered Love

9.3

My husband, a rising political star, begged me to reconcile. I thought our love story was real. It was a lie, a public spectacle designed for his political gain and my systematic destruction. On our anniversary, I found a group chat on his tablet. He and his mistress were laughing about how predictable I was, calling me a "naive fool" for believing his promises. The cruelty escalated from there. He poisoned my food, publicly humiliated me at a charity auction that left me bankrupt, and even had me whipped in his family's basement as a twisted form of punishment. The final blow came when I overheard him plotting my murder. He planned a "tragic hiking accident" at a remote cliff during a storm, a perfect crime to make me disappear forever. But I turned his murder plot into my own escape. I faked my death and started over as a baker in a quiet town. A year later, he found me, haunted by regret, but his final act of redemption-and the true cost of my freedom-was something I never saw coming.

Horror Mystery Romance

8.5

Reborn Regret: I Stop Blocking Their Forever

8.5

After being strangled to death by his girlfriend Cherry, the protagonist wakes up on the day of his murder. In his past life, he tried to stop Cherry from receiving a blood transfusion from her childhood friend Neil, who carried HIV. His interference led to Neil’s accidental death and Cherry’s lethal revenge. Now reborn, he decides to step aside. As he watches the transfusion take place, he chooses his own survival over saving a woman who would rather believe a lie than his warning.

Action Horror Modern Mystery Romance Young Adult

7.6

Rejected Heiress: My Heartless Family's Regret

7.6

For seventeen years, I was the pride of the Carlisle family, the perfect daughter destined to inherit an empire. But that life ended the moment a DNA report slid across my father’s mahogany desk. The paper proved I was a stranger. Vanessa, the girl sobbing in the corner, was the real biological daughter they had been searching for. "You need to leave. Tonight. Before the press gets wind of this. Before the stock prices dip." My father’s voice was as cold as flint. My mother wouldn't even look at me, staring out the window at the gardens as if I were already a ghost. Just like that, I was erased. I left behind the Birkin bags and the diamonds, throwing my Centurion Card into a crystal bowl with a clatter that echoed like a gunshot. I walked out into the cold night and climbed into a rusted Ford Taurus driven by a man I had never met—my biological father. I went from a mansion to a fourth-floor walk-up in Queens that smelled of laundry detergent and struggle. My new siblings looked at me with a mix of fear and disgust, waiting for the "fallen princess" to break. They expected me to beg for my old life back, to crumble without the luxury I’d known since birth. But they didn't know the truth. I had spent years training in a shark tank, honing survival skills they couldn't imagine. While Richard Carlisle froze my trust funds to starve me out, my net worth was climbing by millions on an encrypted trading app. They thought they were throwing me to the wolves. They didn't realize they were just letting me off my leash. As the Carlisles prepared to debut Vanessa at the Manhattan Arts Gala, I was already making my move. "Get dressed. We're going to a party."

Billionaire Horror Modern

7.5

The Billionaire's Secret Obsession: She Is Mine

7.5

Julianna was drowning in a corporate warzone, fighting a massive department deficit while fending off her mother’s relentless matchmaking. Then, a ghost from her past returned to shatter her reality. Eight years ago, Aidan Caldwell walked out of her life without a word. Now, he was back in New York as a ruthless billionaire, and a pitch-black Maybach started stalking her in the dim underground garage. She had no idea the driver hiding behind the obsidian-tinted glass was Aidan. She didn't know he had just choked a confession out of an executive, discovering that her "betrayal" eight years ago was a complete lie. "Stay away from her. The rules are mine now." Aidan had warned his rivals, his sanity tearing at the seams as he watched from the shadows while a creepy coworker put an arm around her shoulder. He shattered glasses and crushed her favorite white flowers in his penthouse, driven by a lethal, obsessive jealousy seeing other men touch what belonged to him. Julianna was completely in the dark, feeling only a heavy, predatory stare pinning her to the cold concrete. When a sudden, heartbreaking scent of cedarwood rolled out of the cracked car window, her brain short-circuited. Why was this terrifying stranger stalking her in the shadows? Desperate to save her career, Julianna recklessly agreed to fake an engagement with a wealthy heir this weekend. But she had no idea Aidan had already rigged her company's crisis, and the predator was about to tear her world apart to claim her back.

Billionaire Horror Modern

A Mother's Final Portrait

Chapter 2

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