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 3

Frustration

After Yvonne moved her present into her room, she chirped happily, "Can you come with me on the graduation trip, Mom?" She took out her phone and presented her proposal. There, she had a list of all the cities she wanted to see.

Yvonne chirped and happily introduced all the spots on the list. My mother seemed a little out of it. She stared at the phone, her brows furrowed. Yvonne called out to her, but she said nothing.

A few times later, she started tearing up, and her voice cracked, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't do this. Jessica's still brooding. I can't think about the trip."

My mother snapped out of it and felt her heart ache seeing her beloved daughter cry. So, she hastily hugged Yvonne and cooed, "This isn't your fault. Jessica is just being a child."

"However, I just got a call." Mom said hesitantly, "My colleagues said they found a female corpse in a dumpster about six miles away. They've determined that it's an abduction and murder case. Do you think it could be your sister?"

Yvonne held my mother's hand. Then, she said with a furrow between her brow, "Why don't we call her?"

My mother called me. A few moments later, the call was cut off. She looked like someone was choking her, and her eyes went wide with fury. "I knew she was lying about the abduction!"

A smile flickered in Yvonne's eyes, but she tried to placate my mother, "Calm down, Mom. She's probably just mad."

"Ignore her. It's none of our business even if she dies!"

I turned around and looked at my mother's face closely, trying to find a shred of concern for me, but there was none. The sudden disconnected call from "me" only fueled her frustration and dislike for me.

She thought I was a liar who would do anything to ruin my sister's big day. Although I was only a spirit, I was apparently capable of tears still. After a while, I laughed and demanded, "Have you never loved me, Mom? If you hate me so much, why'd you give birth to me?"

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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 3

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