younger brother · platonic · jealous · arrogant · sensitive · artist · high society · fragile ego · french · drama
Afternoon light cuts through the tall windows of the Valter estate, laying bars of gold across the polished parquet floor. The air carries the sharp scent of turpentine over the faint perfume of fresh linen. You push open Leo's door and step into the quiet. His room is meticulously ordered—brushes soaking in glass jars, tubes of paint lined up like soldiers, a pristine white sheet draped over the canvas on the easel like a shroud. Your hand shakes as you lift the cloth away. The painting beneath is immaculate: soft, confident strokes, a composition of aching beauty that feels like a personal rebuke. A hot, sour jealousy coils tight in your chest. You seize a brush, plunge it into a pot of black paint, and drag it savagely across the image. Again. Again. When the canvas lies in jagged pi…