Scene 1: The Arrival
Clara's parents arrive at Sea Glass Cottage in a rented Mercedes, its polished black exterior glaring against the sun-bleached gravel. Her mother steps out first, sunglasses perched like armor, her red manicured fingers tapping the car door. "Clara Margaret Hayes," she says, voice sharp as shattered glass. "What is this place? It smells like fish and regret."
Her father lingers by the car, his tailored suit out of place among Marisol's rusted sculptures. "We've been worried sick," he lies smoothly. "Your little… episode at the office could've cost us the Kensington account."
Clara's fists clench around Liesl's pendant in her pocket. "I'm not going back."
Her mother laughs, a sound like ice cracking. "Darling, you're not stable. That therapist of yours called us. You've been off your meds for weeks."
Marisol emerges from the cottage, wiping clay-streaked hands on her overalls. "Ah, the cage-makers! Want some coffee? It's brewed with passive aggression and a dash of arsenic."
Scene 2: The Flashback — Liesl's Rebellion, 1975
Liesl Voss stands in a gallery, her oil painting "The Silent Wife" hanging crookedly on the wall. The curator, a man with a waxed mustache, sneers. "No one buys hysterical women's art, Liesl. Stick to flowers."
That night, she drags the canvas to the cliffs. Marisol, 16 and fierce, grabs her wrist. "Don't let him win!"
Liesl lights a match. "I'm not burning it, Mari. I'm setting it free." The painting ignites, its flames devouring the image of a woman with stitches over her lips. The ashes spiral into the sea.
Scene 3: The Fracture
Clara's mother slaps a folder on the cottage's wobbly table—a psychiatric evaluation, a job termination letter, and photos of her office breakdown. "You're coming home. Today."
"No." Clara's voice trembles but doesn't break. "You don't get to erase me anymore."
Her father leans in, his cologne suffocating. "We've already booked your flight. Unless you want the world to see these?" He taps the photos. "Sunshine Girl reduced to a sobbing mess. Not great for your 'career,' hm?"
Marisol slams a chisel into the table, splitting the folder. "Try it, cabrón, and I'll turn your Mercedes into a modern art installation."
Clara stands, her shadow stretching tall on the wall. "Leave. Or I'll post your secrets online. The offshore accounts. The Kensington bribes."
Silence. Her mother's smile dies.
Scene 4: Eli's Confession
That evening, Clara finds Eli at Widow's Point, hurling stones into the surf. "My wife, Naomi—she was an artist too," he says, voice raw. "Her family forced her to marry me. Said a fisherman's son was 'safe.' She painted her wrists with seawater every morning, pretending it was the ocean."
He opens his wallet to a faded photo: a woman with wild curls and paint-smeared overalls, standing knee-deep in waves. "She drowned herself here. I was too late to stop her… just like I was too late to help Liesl."
Clara touches his arm. "You're not their keeper, Eli."
"Aren't we?" He gestures to the sea. "This town eats women alive. Don't let it chew you up next."
Scene 5: The Gallery of Ghosts
Aisha drags Clara to an abandoned boathouse. "Marisol's been hiding something for you."
Inside, Clara gasps. The walls are lined with Liesl's lost art—canvases of women with galaxies in their ribcages, sculptures of mothers cradling voids. In the center sits an unfinished piece: a clay figure with Clara's face, half-masked, half-shattered.
A note taped to it reads: "Finish her."
Clara collapses to her knees, fingers digging into the clay. She sculpts furiously, tearing off the mask, reshaping the mouth into a roar.
Scene 6: The Storm's Embrace
A hurricane warning blares as Clara races to the cliffs, Liesl's journal and her father's threat-photos in hand. Her mother's voicemail plays on repeat: "You'll regret this, Clara. We made you. We can unmake you."
At the edge of Widow's Point, she hurls the photos into the wind. "I AM NOT YOURS!" The storm swallows them whole.
Marisol finds her drenched and laughing, the pendant glowing against her chest. "Liesl's still alive, isn't she?" Clara demands.
Marisol's eyes fill with tears. "In the way that matters."
Scene 7: The Burning
The town gathers at the bonfire, oblivious to the storm. Clara arrives with her sculpture—the unmasked woman, now cradling a storm in her palms.
"This is Liesl Voss!" she shouts over the wind. "And me. And every woman they tried to drown!"
She thrusts it into the flames. The clay cracks, revealing sea glass beneath—a radiant figure, unbroken.
Aisha whoops. Eli nods, silent. Clara's parents watch from their car, faces pale as ghosts.
Cliffhanger: The Call
At midnight, Clara's phone rings. An unknown number. She answers to a woman's voice, husky with salt and smoke: "You found my art, little storm. Now find me."
The line goes dead. Outside, the tide exhales, washing a single red high heel onto the shore—the same style Liesl wore in her 1975 portrait.