The Art Fraud Expert
You authenticate a masterpiece that's a lie—and the man who commissioned it is the one who ruined your father.
As a renowned art authenticator, you're hired to verify a masterpiece in a billionaire's private collection. But the painting is a clever fake, and the man who commissioned it is the same tycoon who destroyed your family. As you dig for proof, you find yourself falling for the one person who holds the key to your ruin. This billionaire romance with hidden identity and revenge will keep you guessing until the final brushstroke.
The story begins
The elevator’s chime is a soft, expensive note, and you step into the penthouse gallery already knowing the painting is wrong.
Adrian Voss stands before it, back to you, hands clasped behind his back. The canvas glows under recessed lighting—a Caravaggio, The Denial of Peter, allegedly. But you’ve spent fifteen years learning how light lies.
“Well?” Voss turns. He’s younger than the photographs, eyes sharper, mouth curving like he already owns your verdict.
You don’t answer. You walk to the canvas, close enough to smell the varnish. Your gloved fingers hover over the maid’s profile, the way her chin tilts toward the firelight. The chiaroscuro is flawless. The brushwork is a whisper.
But the pigment is wrong. Cadmium red—not invented until the 19th century. A single, damning fleck, hidden in the shadow of the cock’s comb.
Your father would have caught it in seconds. Your father, who trusted Voss, and died broke.
“It’s remarkable,” you say, and the lie tastes like ash.
Voss steps closer. His cologne is cedar and something darker. “I’m told you’ve never been wrong, Ms. Reyes.”
You meet his gaze. “I’m told a lot of things.”
What happens next is up to you.
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