He Burned My Face for Her, So I Rose from the Ashes

The night before the Society Showcase, I found myself locked inside my own wing of the Barone estate as it went up in flames.

By the time they dragged me out, my face was torn and scorched and most of my body was severely burned.

Outside the room where the Family's private doctors worked, my mother was crying like her heart had shattered, blaming herself over and over for the door that had somehow locked from the outside.

My betrothed pulled every string the Falcone name could reach, summoning the best knife-work specialists in the territory, swearing on the bloodline he'd restore my face to the way it was.

However, just as they were about to put me under, I heard my mother's hesitant voice drift through the door.

"Lorenzo, even if it was to clear the way for Bianca at the Showcase, wasn't it too cruel to set the fire and lock the door, leaving Adriana disfigured like this?"

Lorenzo Falcone let out a cold laugh.

"If Adriana weren't so vain and selfish, I wouldn't have had to go this far. She knew Bianca carried her wounds, but she kept flaunting her perfect figure in front of her. All she lost was her face and skin. Meanwhile, Bianca lost her happiness. Adriana owed her. Don't worry, I'll still marry her. Once she carries the Falcone name, even if she looks like a monster, no one in the territory will dare speak. I'm being so good to her; she should be grateful."

Is destroying my health and my place in the Family being good to me?

I gritted my teeth, pressing my thumb hard against the inside of my ruined wrist, a mix of coldness and pain tearing through my heart.

The man I loved deeply, the mother who doted on me. I wanted neither of them anymore.

……

"Hold off on the knife work. Get all the specialists out. Let them wait in the hall," Lorenzo ordered.

The doctor, who had just pulled on his gloves, looked up, startled. "Signor Falcone, Miss Barone's burns are too severe. The smoke has damaged her throat. If we don't work now, she won't only lose her voice, her face and skin will be beyond saving."

Hearing this, my mother seemed to soften. Her fingers found the edge of her mourning shawl and rubbed the fabric slowly between them. "Lorenzo, Adriana is so badly hurt; she can't set foot at the Showcase tomorrow regardless. Why not just let them work on her..."

"If she's ruined, so be it. Suppose we fix her now, with her vain and selfish nature, even if she can't win, she'll find a way to sabotage Bianca. The only way to stop her is to break her spirit completely. This is for her own good. She needs to be taught a lesson."

He picked up a damp swab and gently dabbed it against my cracked lips. His touch was soft, but his words cut deeper than any wound. His thumb moved along the edge of his signet ring, faster with each word. "I gave Bianca my word. She takes the Showcase. I won't let anyone stand in her way."

My mother let out a small sigh and turned to the doctor. "At least ease her pain. Just clean and disinfect the burns. Be gentle. Don't let her suffer too much."

No one noticed how hard I was shaking as my soul was stabbed right through. So it wasn't an accident after all. The fire that nearly killed me was all part of their plan. The man I loved set me up just to clear the way for Bianca. Even my usually doting mother was an accomplice.

They stood at the door, indifferent to my desperate cries for help from the other side, their minds filled with relief that I was finally ruined. The pain crushed my chest. My raw throat convulsed and I coughed up a mouthful of blood. My mother reached out on instinct, then realized there was nowhere on my body she could touch. Her eyes welled with tears of distress. "Baby, Mommy's here. It hurts, doesn't it? Don't be scared. Mommy's not going anywhere."

Lorenzo lost his temper and snapped, "Where the hell are those skin specialists? If anything happens to my wife, this whole place is finished." The threat hung in the room, quiet and absolute, and the doctor's hands went still.

The doctor, who had clearly been briefed, explained obsequiously, "Signor Falcone, we've been pressing them. There was an accident on the road out of the territory, the way was blocked. The earliest they can arrive is tomorrow."

Lorenzo kicked him aside. "Get out."