I cleared my throat, straightened up, and spoke in a voice gone cold.

"Dad, I never wanted to fight for anything. A life of silks and luxury, I can give myself—"

"Mom, Dad, my head is spinning so badly. Am I dying? I'm so sorry, I haven't repaid you for raising me—"

Madge collapsed neatly into our brother's arms, and every face in the room went pale as they scrambled to hold her up and rush her out of the mansion.

Denys carried Madge, and just as he crossed the threshold, he glanced back, a flicker of murderous intent in his eyes.

"Zoe, if anything happens to Madge, I won't let you off."

My gaze darkened as I watched the whole cluster of them vanish hurriedly into the night.

The courtyard glowed warm and bright, yet a chill radiated from every part of me as I stood alone in the middle of the living room.

I don't know how long it was before I came back to myself and walked, step by step, toward the guest room they'd hastily prepared for me.

The room was genuinely tasteful and immaculate, snow-white sheer curtains pooling on the floor, a plush cashmere rug underfoot, soft and comfortable beneath my feet.

Compared to Dragon Bay, where I'd toiled growing medicinal herbs and slept exhausted in a straw shed, it was a far better thing.

But I knew perfectly well that Madge's room was the best master suite on the second floor, cashmere carpet running the length of the entire hallway, her private walk-in closet larger than this guest room of mine.

To them, being given a room like this was already generous. They hadn't shortchanged me.

I wasn't blaming them, really. But it was family I'd longed for over twenty years, and my heart still sank with a quiet disappointment.

I lay on my back on the soft, wide bed, staring wearily at the lush silk tree beyond the courtyard, its pink petals drifting down.

In a daze, I remembered my mother holding me under that tree when I was small, murmuring softly,

"Our little girl is Mommy's prettiest treasure, Mommy's most beloved little princess."

My brother came running over and pressed a cotton candy into my hand, his childish face all seriousness.

"Baby sister, when you grow up I'll give you all the best things to eat. From now on I'll protect you. Anyone who bullies you, I'll beat them to death."

That hazy memory circled through my mind again and again, the reason I'd yearned for twenty years to be reunited with them.

Yearned to throw myself into their arms and say,

"Mom, Dad, big brother, your baby sister is home."

"Mom, Dad, big brother, I missed you all so much. I dreamed of finding you."

Half asleep, it seemed a silk-tree flower had landed on my face, a cool, wet touch.

Then a searing sting tore across it, and I bolted upright with a jolt, clutching my face, a shrill scream ripping out of me.

The scalding pain swept over my whole face in an instant, every ache in me gathering there at once, then spreading out through my arms and legs.

I sprang up from the bed, hands clamped over my cheeks, and rolled to the floor, howling in agony.

Beside me, my brother Denys Hughes's voice came, cold.

"You brought this on yourself." His voice was that piercing, that frozen.

"I wasn't going to do anything to you. But you just couldn't behave, going against Madge at every turn, fighting her over everything."

"Madge is kind. She couldn't bear to see Mom and Dad hurt and torn, so now she's at the hospital refusing treatment. She'd rather die than not hand the position of eldest Hughes daughter back to you."

He crouched down, wrenched my hands away from my face, and looked at my raw, ruined cheeks with not a trace of pity in his eyes, only the satisfaction of a grudge settled.

"Zoe, with your looks destroyed today, hideous beyond recognition, do you still dare to covet what was never yours?"

"Let's see how you fight Madge now. Do you still dare to bully her?"

My screaming brought my father and mother rushing back, and the instant they pushed open the door, their faces changed all at once.

My father's normally steady face went to frost in a heartbeat.

"Denys Hughes, you bastard."

He barked the words as he lunged forward, seized him by the collar, and drove a fist into his face.

"Zoe is your own sister, and you did something this vicious. Throwing acid to ruin her face. Is this how a big brother behaves?"

In a fury, my father kicked Denys into the corner.

He roared,

"Stuart Lambert, bring the family disciplinary rod. Today I'll beat this cold-hearted, ruthless son of mine to death."

Denys had his own stubborn backbone. He dropped to his knees on the floor with a thud, craned his neck, and said,

"Today, even if you beat me to death, I'd still throw this bottle of acid."

"She's not my sweet little sister anymore. She's just a selfish, greedy country girl. Look at what she's driven Madge to. Do you want her to destroy this whole family?"

My father froze. For a second his eyes wavered, then the rage surged up again, and he brought the rod down hard across Denys's back.

"That still doesn't give you the right to throw acid. She is your own sister."

The rod cracked, and Denys let out a muffled grunt, yet he kept his spine straight and never begged.

My father's brow knotted. He raised the rod high again and struck.

"Still won't admit you were wrong? Still won't apologize to your sister and beg her forgiveness?"

The rod came whistling down, and just as it was about to land on my brother's back again, my mother screamed and threw herself over Denys, clutching him tight in her arms.

Heedless of the pain, she cried and wailed,

"Burton, stop, stop hitting him. One of our children is already in the hospital. Do you mean to beat the other one to death too?"

She wept until she came apart, her whole heart aching for Madge, aching for the son who had brought down this disaster, and from beginning to end she never once saw me curled on the floor, my face streaked with blood, wishing I were dead.

My father stopped, breathing hard, and let out a heavy sigh.

My mother only held my brother and sobbed as if her heart were being torn out.

A long while later, Burton threw down the rod, turned, and looked at me with guilt and helplessness. He gently helped me up, an apology in his voice.

"Zoe, it's my fault for not raising your brother right. In this, we've wronged you."

He was silent a moment, as if weighing it all carefully, before he made his promise.

"Tomorrow I'll set up a card for you and transfer two hundred thousand dollars as compensation."

"Once this has all blown over, once Madge has fully recovered and she and Benjamin are married, I'll send you abroad right away to find the best doctors. I promise you, I'll have your face made even prettier than before, without a single scar left."

As the words fell, my sobbing mother let go of my brother, hurried over to me, reached out and held me tight, her tears dropping one by one onto my neck.

"Zoe, my good child, I'm sorry, I'm truly sorry. Mama never thought it would come to this. It's Mama's fault, I didn't protect you."

Crying, she apologized and explained over and over.

"Zoe, you'll understand your mother. They're all my flesh and blood. On one side is a child we raised for twenty years, on the other is your brother. Your mama truly had no choice."

"Just forgive your brother this once, all right? Even if your face really does scar and isn't pretty anymore, your mama will never think any less of you. Your father and I will take care of you for the rest of your life, provide for you always, never let you suffer the slightest wrong."

Her warm tears fell onto my raw, festering wound, sending wave after wave of fine, splintering pain through it.

I leaned in her arms, listening to these hollow words of comfort, the searing pain in my face long since numb, while that last thread of hope I'd held for family love shattered, finally, completely into nothing.

Father called the butler to fetch a doctor for me. I let them lift me onto the bed and work over my face however they wanted.

Under the heavy anesthetic, I slowly drifted into unconsciousness.

When I woke again the room was pitch black. The sharp pain in my face had faded, leaving only a dry, stinging soreness in my throat.

I sat up slowly and felt my way out to find water.

Standing at the bend of the second-floor landing, I looked down into the great room below. Burton sat on the sofa, his face dark, while Mother tended the wounds on Denys's back with aching tenderness, crying and complaining as she worked.

"Burton, how could you be so cruel to your own son? He did it for Madge. His heart was in the right place."

Burton let out a breath, his face iron-hard.

"Right place or not, he had no business hurting her that badly."

"If I hadn't come down hard on Denys to give that girl her due and calm her down, if she'd run out today and called the police, tomorrow the Hughes name would be splashed across the headlines. And then do you think the Sanchez family would still let Madge marry in?"