“I’m sorry, Mrs. Sy, but the request for cancellation came directly from the Blackwood office,” Where Daniel was working, his father’s company.

“The documentation we received stated that for… health reasons, you are unable to fulfill the travel requirements for the Florence seminar. They mentioned you were mentally unfit for the international flight.”

The voice of the gallery coordinator on the phone felt like a slow-acting poison. I stood in my studio, the phone pressed to my ear, staring at the blank canvas that was supposed to be my next masterpiece. The international seminar in Italy—the one thing that was mine, the one door that led out of this gilded...