Kenzie Anne - Florentine Part 2 -11.11.21- Official

Part one had ended in fire. A gallery opening, a stolen kiss behind a column of Carrara marble, a whisper of “Tornami a trovare” —come find me again. She had. She had sold her return ticket to New York and stayed.

Matteo closed the book. The rain hammered the glass.

“That’s me,” she whispered.

“She’s waiting,” Kenzie said. “For something. Someone.”

“The corridor is closing tonight for restoration,” he said. “For good. If you want to see where she hid the last painting—the one they never found—you come with me now. But Kenzie.” He cupped her face, thumbs brushing her cheekbones like she was the sketch and he was the smudge. “The woman who goes in there with me won’t be the woman who comes out.” Kenzie Anne - Florentine Part 2 -11.11.21-

They stepped into the Florentine dark, and the studio fell silent. On the easel, the unfinished woman turned her face at last.

“She chose love,” he said. “And she was erased. Not killed. Erased. Her paintings signed by her father. Her letters burned. Her name scratched off a tombstone in Santa Croce.” Part one had ended in fire

“Why me?”

“Yes?”