I dared not speak. I dared not move. But he stepped closer, his hand reaching out and grabbing my chin roughly. He tilted my head up, forcing me to look at him. His eyes bored into mine, searching for something he would never find.
“You think you deserve to live with that face?” His grip tightened, nails digging into my skin. “You think you can just walk around, reminding me of what I lost?”
“I didn’t choose this,” I whispered, my voice barely audible. “I didn’t ask to look like her.”
His eyes flared with rage, and he shoved me backward. I stumbled and fell hard against the floor, the breath knocked out of me. “Then hide it!” he snapped. “Hide it or I’ll rip it off myself!”
I stayed on the ground until he left, the pain radiating through my body, but I made no sound. If there was one thing I had learned here, it was how to keep quiet when every bone in my body wanted to scream.
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