The Vanishing Portrait

Eleanor had spent years curating her art collection, but the pièce de résistance was an 18th-century portrait of a woman with piercing green eyes. One morning, as she sipped her tea, she turned to admire the painting—only to find the canvas blank.

Panicked, she called the museum she had bought it from, but they swore they had never sold her such a piece. Even the receipt she had carefully stored was missing. The only proof that it ever existed was a single Polaroid she had taken years ago.

As she flipped the photo over, her breath caught in her throat. A message had appeared in faded ink:
“You shouldn’t have taken me.”