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."

Lorenzo turned back, a face full of fake guilt as he crouched down in front of me. "Amore, I'm so sorry. It's all my fault for arriving so late and making you suffer so much. Don't worry. No matter what it costs, I'll have the Family's own doctors fix your skin and your face. I'll get you back on that stage."

I stared blankly at his Oscar-worthy performance, a bitter taste in my mouth. "Can I really get better?"

"Yes, you absolutely can." His confident lies only made me feel like a complete fool. To be rid of me, the one obstacle standing in Bianca's path, this man who had gone from a boy at my side to a betrothal blessed by both bloodlines, who had sworn on his name to love me forever, had used lie after lie to push me to my breaking point. Even my mother, who had treasured me like the trueborn daughter of the Barone line since I was small, had chosen to raise the knife for Bianca, the two-faced foundling she favored above her own blood.

At that moment, I truly wanted to scream at them, to ask why they were being so cruel to me. But all the words just froze in my ice-cold heart, turning into dead silence. A few of the Family's doctors came over with antiseptic, their faces showing pity as they looked at my ruined, burned body. "Signorina Barone, the specialist hasn't arrived yet. We'll have to clean the wounds first. It's going to hurt. Please bear with it."

Still, "a bit" was a cruel joke. The moment the disinfectant touched my skin, the pain shot through my body like fire. It felt as if I were being thrown into the flames all over again. My fragile veins burst open and the entire bed was soaked with blood and pus. My mother stood there watching, one hand clutched over her mouth, her whole body shaking as she sobbed. Lorenzo's eyes were red. His fists clenched so hard the knuckles turned white, as if he wished he could take the pain for me. Their concern looked so real. But I knew the truth. It was all a performance. The only real things were the lies and the pain.

When I woke again, two days had passed. Beyond the door I could hear Lorenzo and my mother speaking in the low, measured voices men use when a decision has already been made. "Lorenzo, Adriana's condition is already this bad. We've delayed the knife work for two days now. Do we really have to give her that experimental drug? The doctor says it hasn't been fully tested. The side effects could be seizures. Incontinence."

A few seconds of silence. Then Lorenzo's voice, firm and quiet, the voice of a man who no longer negotiated. "That's exactly the side effect we want. Tonight is Bianca's celebration, and half the important names in the territory will be there. Adriana is already a ruin. A little more disgrace won't cost her anything. Only when she's lost her dignity completely will she stop standing in Bianca's way. After tomorrow, I'll announce our betrothal. Consider that my compensation to her."

Then, carefully, he added, "Have the specialists wait outside the estate. The moment the banquet ends, they can see to Adriana."

My mother agreed at once. I heard the soft, restless sound of her fingers working the fabric of her mourning shawl between them, the way she always did before she chose the wrong daughter. I stared blankly at the ceiling as silent tears streamed down my cheeks. The salt stung the open wounds on my face, sending waves of sharp, searing pain through me. Still, none of it compared to the pain in my chest.

These were the two people closest to me. They knew how weak and sickly I had been since I was a child. They had watched how hard I fought, how much I gave up, to rise through the Family's showcases and make a name that was mine and clean. Now, with a few careless words, they had destroyed the one dream I'd built for myself. Had I known I would end up like this, I would have let the fire take me instead.

The door opened. Lorenzo saw I was awake and held out two pills with a look of tenderness. "Amore, I just spoke with the doctor. This is a new painkiller the Family's men developed. No side effects. It will ease your pain."

I lowered my eyes to the two bright red pills, my throat feeling as though it were full of rust. My voice was hoarse when I spoke. "Lorenzo, the medicine is too bitter. I don't want to take it."

Lorenzo hesitated for only a couple of seconds. Then he smiled and squeezed my hand, his thumb moving slow and steady along the edge of his signet ring. "Seeing you suffer every day breaks my heart. Can you really bear to watch your husband in pain? Please, tesoro. Do it for me."

Before I could even say no, Lorenzo pressed the pills to my lips. "Come on, be a good girl. Let your husband feed you."

The bitter medicine slipped into my mouth as he half-forced it in. That sticky, nauseating taste spread instantly and the next thing I knew, the world spun around me. Taking advantage of my dizziness, Lorenzo caught my hand in his. "Tesoro, today is Bianca's celebration. The whole Family will be there. Her one wish is your blessing. If you don't come, word travels through the territory that you're a petty thing who won't accept her own sister. I'll go. Just have my clothes laid out." His thumb moved once, twice, along the edge of his signet ring, faster than a man at peace with himself. I didn't know yet what that tell meant. It had already cost me everything.

I knew Lorenzo had it all arranged, down to the last chair at the table. He wasn't going to leave me a single opening, so there was no point in arguing. Just then my mother came in and caught the tail end of it. Her face lifted. "My sweet girl, I knew you were the sensible one." Her fingers found the edge of her mourning shawl and rubbed the fabric slow between them. "Once Bianca's night is behind us, I'll see to your union with Lorenzo myself." She said it smiling, as though absolution came cheap.

I numbly pulled my hand back. At that moment, my heart felt like it had turned to ash. The car brought us to the estate quickly. The moment I was helped down onto the gravel, a swarm of camera flashes broke over me all at once. I panicked and reached for Mamma's hand and closed on nothing. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her walking briskly away with Bianca folded in her arm, not sparing me a glance. My face went pale. I lowered my head and clutched my hat tight against it.

"Signorina Barone, we hear you feared your own sister would take the showcase from you, so you set the fire yourself to burn her alive, only it turned on you and marked your own face. Is that the truth?"

"Signorina Barone, a viper like you still dares walk into your sister's celebration? Have you no shame at all?"

"Signorina Barone, you twist so pretty on the runway. How could a girl like you fear losing to anyone? Or is it the men keeping you who've stopped being satisfied?"

As one of them spoke, another lunged and tore the hat from my head. A gasp went through the crowd in one breath. My burned, ruined face stood exposed under the hard white glare of their cameras.

"Dio, that's revulsion itself. Is that a monster?"

"I'm going to be sick. So hideous, like meeting a ghost in broad daylight."

My heart pounded and my vision started sliding to black in slow waves. They had no mercy in them. Phones went up all around me, and the live streams began, carrying my face to every corner of the territory.

"The famous Barone girl. Rotten and cruel to the bone. Tried to burn her own sister and got scorched for it instead. They say there isn't a clean patch of skin left on her. Let's see what the wages of sin really look like."

Someone shoved me and I went down onto the stone. The loose clothing I wore tore away easily. My arms, my thighs, my stomach, all of it bared to them. A hoarse, broken sob dragged out of my throat. Then my hands and my feet began to shake, past all my will. My whole body jolted as though a live current ran through it.

The ones tearing at me seemed to scent something new, and shouted, giddy with it. "She's having a fit. This is gold. Quick, get in close, get the shot, all of it."

My eyes rolled back with the pain and white foam kept spilling from my mouth. I knew the drug had taken hold, and there was nothing left in me to fight it. Like a jester stripped bare in front of the whole Family, I let them shred every last thread of my dignity. Then someone shrieked. A warm liquid ran out from beneath me and a foul, sour stench filled the air at once. The humiliation was so vast I couldn't even weep through it. I wished only to die there on the ground.

While they went on with their disgust and their insults, the flashes bore down on my lower body, snapping without end. I lay there like a dead dog, without a shred of strength left to struggle. "What are you doing. Who gave you leave to take pictures like that?"