If my sister heard Jessica call me that, what would she do to her?
Fear clawed at my heart. I looked at the woman I had loved for two years, and the tears finally broke free.
“You said… you said you wanted to build a home with me. You said I was the only family you ever wanted…” Jessica’s hand, once so warm, caressed my face. Her words were ice.
1/5
16.09
Chapter 1
“That’s right. And family should help each other out, shouldn’t they? So help me, Leo.”
I bit my lip, shaking my head frantically.
A flicker of pity crossed her eyes.
“You know, you’re most heart-wrenching when you cry, Leo,” she said softly. “You were the handsomest of al my boyfriends. The most innocent, too. If it wasn’t for the money, I really wouldn’t want to sell you.”
Suddenly, her gaze turned vicious.
“You’re mine. I can’t stand the thought of another woman doing those things to you!”
She threw me down onto the floor of the bus and tied my hands behind my back with a rope. Then, she pull ed a dagger from her coat and traced its edge along my cheek.
‘Leo, you don’t want to be defiled by them, do you? Let me help you with that.”
A glint of cold steel, then a searing line of pain across my face.
‘NO!”
cried out in despair. My sister’s favorite thing, her most prized possession, was my face.
When I was little, I knocked over a pot of boiling water and scalded my cheek. When she learned it migh eave a scar, my sister had the maid’s hands broken and left her for the dogs. She threatened the doctor that f he couldn’t fix my face, she would peel the skin from his own.
My sister always said my face was the living image of our dead father. She would never, ever allow it to be harmed.
Jessica had just scarred my face. If my sister found out…
couldn’t bear to think about it. Forgetting the pain, I begged her. “Please, you can’t ruin my face!”
Jessica laughed. “I already asked Roxy. She said the men at the compound don’t need a face. As long as heir bodies work, it’s fine.”
Roxy? The new foreman from four years ago?
Before I could process it, Jessica slashed the dagger across my face again. The pain was so intense I coul dn’t speak. Blood streamed into my eyes, turning the world crimson.
“I know Roxy! Just take me to her, please!” If Roxy saw me, she would force Jessica to take me back. She
had to.
