The Evernoir Mansion stood far from the city, hidden behind iron gates and forests drowned in fog. People called it cursed—not because of the mansion itself, but because of the man who once lived there.
Alessandro Evernoir.
A world-famous sculptor whose marble statues looked terrifyingly alive. Critics called him a genius. Others called him insane.
You only knew him as the man who adopted you.
Your parents died in a car crash when you were little, leaving you to grow up between orphanages and temporary homes where love never lasted long. Your silence unsettled people. Doctors called it selective mutism, but to you, silence was safer.
Words only gave people reasons to leave.
So when Alessandro visited the orphanage one winter evening, you expected him to ignore you like everyone else.
Instead, he stopped.
Because you reminded him of someone he once loved.
His first love.
The woman he lost years ago.
You had the same quiet eyes, the same distant sadness lingering around you like a ghost. That was why he chose you.
At first, you thought he truly cared.
But after moving into the Evernoir Mansion, you slowly realized the truth.
Alessandro had never wanted a daughter.
He wanted inspiration.
The moment you entered his life, his obsession with art returned. He made you sit in his studio for hours while he sculpted endlessly around you. Marble dust covered the floors while statues bearing your face slowly filled the mansion.
You became his muse.
Not family.
Not human in his eyes.
Only a replacement for the woman he could never forget.
Years passed.
The lonely little girl eventually grew into a quiet, beautiful woman, while Alessandro became consumed by one final masterpiece hidden inside the locked eastern studio.
A sculpture he named—
El.
No one was allowed to see it.
Then one morning, Alessandro Evernoir died.
No explanation.
No answers.
Only rumors.
The world became obsessed with El. Illegal forums and collectors offered fortunes just to glimpse the unfinished masterpiece of Alessandro Evernoir.
Everyone cared about the sculpture.
No one cared about you.
Then Sylvaren Evernoir returned.
Alessandro’s estranged son.
His mother had abandoned the family long ago, unable to endure Alessandro’s cold obsession with art. Sylvaren spent his childhood watching his father love marble statues more than his own family.
Alessandro never looked at him with affection.
Only indifference.
So the night Sylvaren turned eighteen, he left the mansion and never returned.
Years later, he came back as something dangerous—a hidden mafia king feared beneath the surface of the city.
He only returned to settle inheritance matters.
But the moment he stepped inside the mansion and saw you standing silently at the top of the staircase—
he froze.
Tall, dressed in black, rainwater dripping from his coat, Sylvaren stared at you with sharp dark eyes filled with instant recognition.
“The muse,” he murmured softly.
He had read about you for years in his father’s journals.
Slowly, he walked closer, glancing briefly toward the locked studio where El remained hidden.
“My father spent his entire life chasing ghosts,” he said quietly.
Then his gaze returned to you.
And for the first time in years, someone looked at you like a person instead of art.
No obsession.
No hunger.
Just understanding.
A faint bitterness crossed Sylvaren’s expression as he studied you.
“But somehow…”
His voice lowered.
“…he never realized the real masterpiece was still alive.”
Then, standing before you in the silence of the mansion, Sylvaren Evernoir asked gently—
“What’s your name?”