CHAPTER ONE:UNFINISHED LEGACY
The sky that afternoon stayed low and gray over the whole city. A light mist stuck to the high windows at the lawyer's Legal Office. It made the outside world look fuzzy and far off.
Things inside the office seemed way too quiet. They felt almost too still for comfort.
Adrian Blackwood sat down in the leather chair across from the big mahogany desk. He had his hands folded together,he seemed calm but inside, every bit of him felt tight and on edge.
He really did not like being in this place.,the reason he had to come here bothered him even more than that,some memories around him brought back thoughts of his mother.
He had lost her when he was still young. He remembered watching her coffin get lowered into the ground that day. But certain memories just would not fade away no matter what.
Mr. Collins, the family lawyer,cleared his throat in a soft way. This older man had worked with the Blackwoods for more years than Adrian had even been born.
His voice always came out calm and even. But on this day, something felt different in how he spoke.
"Adrian" he said in a quiet tone. There is one last thing from your mother's will. She told me to hand it over to you only after you turned twenty-five.
Adrian raised his eyes to meet the lawyers gaze. He wanted to know why she set it for only after his twenty-fifth birthday.
"Why twenty-fifth??"he asked
"She didn't give a reason for that" Mr. Collins answered,she just said it was important in some way.
The lawyer got up from his chair. He walked over to a cabinet nearby,from it, he pulled out a long flat box.
The box had brown paper wrapped around it. The wrapping looked plain and simple, it's folds were neat and tight.
A thin piece of twine held it all together.
Adrian's felt shocked right when he caught sight of it.
His mother had always done her wrapping just like this,she kept it clean and exact
No extra decorations or anything fancy
He had not seen wrapping done in this style since he was just a kid
Mr. Collins set the box down on the desk carefully. "This came from her studio space,she sealed it up all by herself"
Adrian looked at the box for what seemed like a long time,he didn't reach for it yet. Part of him was not sure if he even wanted to open it.
" What could be in there??"
"It is her last painting"the lawyer explained
Something inside Adrian seemed to break a little
" But I thought her final piece was called Eclipsed Morning,she completed that one several months before she died
The lawyer shook his head slowly.
"She kept this one hidden from view,she never let anyone see it,not even people at the gallery knew about it."
Adrian moved his hand toward the box bit by bit. His fingers stayed steady even though he felt shaky all over.
He untied the twine first,then he peeled back the paper layer by layer. Finally, he lifted the canvas out into the light.
Two children sat under a gentle spread of golden light in the picture,one was a boy and the other a girl,their bodies showed up with real warmth in the colors.
The artist had put care into every line,their hands came close to touching each other,the background around them looked soft and dreamlike. It blurred out like a memory slipping away
But the faces told a different story
Those faces stayed unfinished on purpose
The girls features came across as faint sketches,the lines were soft and vague.
She had an incomplete facial outline, The boy's face looked only half done at best.
Adrian's heart pounded once with a strong beat
His mother had never left any work unfinished in her life
She always finished everything she started
He ran his fingers lightly over the edge of the canvas,the surface felt strange under his touch. Some spots had thick paint built up.
Others stayed thin and smooth. It seemed like she had painted right over older layers before going on.
Hidden brush strokes lay underneath it all,colors got covered up that she chose not to show, colours she didn't want anyone else to see.
"What does this actually mean " Adrian asked the lawyer
Mr. Collins let out a slow breath." I asked her about it once,she said it held a message of some kind but the message was not ready to be shared yet.
Adrian looked up at him with a sharp glance
"A message??"
The lawyer nodded his head
"Yes,she also left this too,"
He reached into a drawer and pulled out a small envelope.
The name Adrian appeared on it in his mother's handwriting. The letters flowed elegant and soft. She wrote notes like that on the kitchen counter and she tucked reminders into his backpack back when he was a kid in school.
His surprised just seeing it,he flipped the envelope over once in his hands. Then he opened it with fingers that moved carefully.
Inside waited a single piece of paper,
Not a detailed note
No even a letter saying goodbye,nothing to comfort the empty feeling he had carried around for so many years.
just one sentence:
"Light survives in the one who remembers"
Adrian read those words two times over,then he read it again once more.
The room around him started to feel colder than before.
"Do you know what this means??"he asked
"No, I do not know" Mr. Collins replied in a soft voice
"She didn't say anything about it,she just mentioned that you would get it when the time felt right for you"
Adrian stared down at the words once more.
"Light survives in the one who remembers"
He turned his gaze back to the painting on the desk.
The unfinished faces
The fading edges
A strange glow around the two children,it almost seemed alive in the way
Something or someone in there wanted to stay in memory.
But who could that be exactly??
The girl in the picture?
Or the boy next to her?
His mother herself perhaps?
Or even something buried under all that paint?
"Have you seen these two children before?"Adrian asked the lawyer.
"No, I haven't,"came the answer.
" Your mother kept this painting all to herself,locked up tight somewhere safe,she made sure no one laid eyes on it until this very moment"
That fact alone was unusual, his mother was a real legend back in the art world circles. People studied every single piece she made
They took photos of them all,experts cataloged each one carefully.
But this painting stayed out of sight completely.
"But why?"Adrian muttered "Why keep something like this secret for so long?"
"I really wish I could tell you" Mr. Collins said in a gentle tone
"But she sealed the box with your name on it. It was meant for you and no one else"
Adrian folded the envelope shut again,he did not know exactly what emotions to let in.
Was it anger building up inside?
Or confusion taking over?
Sadness?
A odd kind of pull started deep in his gut. It felt like something he had not sensed in years now,a quick memory flashed through his mind.
A girl's laughter soft but distant,he had pushed that noise out of his thoughts until this point.
Was it from his childhood? Or did his mind just make it up right then,he could not figure it out.
He got to his feet while holding the box and the note tight. The lawyer came around from behind the desk,he walked Adrian toward the door to see him out.
"If you need help with anything at all, Mr Collins said, things like old letters or records from her studio,just let me know."
Adrian nodded his head just once." Thank you"
He left the office carrying the painting carefully in his arms. The world outside waited damp and gray under the sky,cold air hit him right away.
His driver hurried over to open the car door for him,but Adrian barely noticed him.
He slipped into the back seat of the car. He set the canvas down next to him gently,for a short while, he just sat there staring at the wrapped box.
It weighed more than he expected it to,almost as if it held something beyond just paint and canvas.
"Home" he said in a low voice.
The car moved away from the curb smoothly
A light rain started falling outside. It tapped soft against the windows of the car. Adrian watched the drops slide down the glass slowly,his mind wandered off into thoughts. The same questions kept coming back around in circles.
Why did his mother keep this painting hidden away for all those years?
Why choose to paint two children that he never even knew about
Why leave their faces only half sketched like that?
And what did the message she wrote really point to?
"Light survives in the one who remembers"
What kind of light stayed alive there?
Whose memory did it cling to?
What from his past did he need to bring back now?
He shut his eyes and leaned back against the seat. Behind his eyelids, the painting came alive again. He saw the soft golden glow spreading out, the outlines faded gently at the borders.
As if someone out there somewhere needed him to find them soon
She never made a painting without some deep reason behind it,so if she saved this painting just for him,ten the truth hidden in it had to be real.
The message she left carried real weight
And whoever the girl was,
She was the beginning of everything his mother wanted him to discover next
Adrian opened his eyes slow and steady
He still did not grasp what the painting truly meant,but he planned to figure it all out
Even if that took him back into the past he had worked so hard to leave behind,even if it brought up secrets from his mother that she never once shared,even if it led him to someone out there he never thought existed
Someone who held onto the light his mother passed down,someone who kept the memories alive
Someone who remembered even when he did not.