The Genius Who Didn't Know Who I Was

Synopsis

I'd given up painting years ago. But when the charity auction invited me—to raise money for children in the disaster zone—I said yes. I picked up the brush, the old weight of it almost foreign in my hand. Then a man's voice cut through the silence. "Seriously? Another one of those landscape things? How quaint. You should look at real art—oil paintings." I ignored him and kept painting. When I finished, he stormed onto the stage, and ripped my work apart. The crowd gasped. I just stared, stunned. My girlfriend rushed up, but not to defend me. She grabbed my arm and hissed, "Apologize. You have no idea who he is." They both looked at me like I was nothing. I wiped the ink from my hands, met their eyes, and said quietly, "That painting was worth three hundred million. Cash or card?"