Chapter 16

Odette

Odette hadn’t been keeping track of the number of days she had been held captive at the Beaufort mansion, but she did notice that the body of work she had built up during her stay was quite hefty. The brothers had had to store many of her paintings offsite and hired a small gallery to store and catalog the works. Odette continued to paint, following different trajectories as her thoughts pulled her in different directions until they decided to do an exhibition based on the Beauforts themselves. By now, Odette knew they had quite the business empire, both legal and shifty, so she created a series of paintings that showed them at their best—stunning, strong, and powerful men. She also showed some intimate portraits of them at home, wanting their clients to see their positive qualities at rest, play, and work. When it became set in stone that there would be this exhibition, the brothers let her work on themes, and, as their lover, she wanted to paint some eroti