Chapter 5

I won the race.

I pushed the car to its limits, my training kicking in, my mind a blank slate of focus and precision.

But on the final turn, another car rammed into me. It wasn't an accident. It was deliberate. My car spun out of control, slamming into the concrete barrier.

The world exploded in a symphony of screeching metal and shattering glass.

I woke up in a hospital room. The smell of antiseptic filled my nostrils. My body was a landscape of pain. But the worst was my face. It was wrapped in bandages, and a searing, chemical burn throbbed on my left cheek.

The door opened and Kylie waltzed in, a triumphant smirk on her face.

"Looks like you survived," she said, her voice dripping with disappointment. "What a pity."

She came closer, her eyes gleaming with malice. "Do you like your new look? I paid the other driver to run you off the road. And I had some of my family's friends make a little modification to the car. They specialize in accidents that aren't accidental. That chemical that sprayed you? An industrial corrosive. Just for you."

My blood ran cold. "Why?" I whispered through cracked lips.

"Why?" She laughed, a high, cruel sound. "Because I can't stand you. I can't stand that you have a face that looks like mine. Bradley is mine. He was always mine. I don't like sharing my toys."

She leaned in close, her voice a venomous whisper. "He may look at you, but he's thinking of me. You are nothing but a cheap copy. And now, you're a broken, ugly copy."

I tried to sit up, to scream, to lash out, but my body wouldn't obey. Tears of rage and despair streamed down my face, soaking into the bandages.

"My face," I sobbed. "It was the only thing... the only reason he..."

The only reason he kept me. The only thing that made me feel, in some twisted way, that I had value to him.

The door opened again. It was Bradley.

He rushed to my side, his face a mask of concern. "Kaci, are you alright?"

For a fleeting moment, a flicker of hope.

"Bradley," I cried, my voice choked with pain. "She... she did this to me."

He looked from me to Kylie. Kylie immediately started to cry, her perfect face crumbling in distress.

"Bradley, I was so scared! The car exploded! I thought she was dead!" she wailed, throwing herself into his arms. "And my head hurts. I think I have a concussion from the stress."

Bradley's attention immediately shifted. He held her, stroked her hair, his voice full of worry. "My poor Kylie. It's okay, I'm here. We'll get the best doctors to look at you."

He completely ignored my accusation. He ignored the bandages on my face, the chemical burns, the fact that I had almost died for him. Again.

He looked at me, his eyes cold and dismissive. "It was a race, Kaci. Accidents happen. Don't be so dramatic."

Dramatic.

He called my agony dramatic.

He and Kylie started to leave, his arm wrapped protectively around her. At the door, Kylie turned back, her eyes meeting mine. She gave me a small, victorious smile and mouthed two words.

"You lose."

They left. I was alone again, in the sterile white room, with the wreckage of my body and my life.

The last embers of my love for him turned to ash. There was nothing left but a burning, all-consuming hatred.

I stared at my reflection in the dark TV screen. A monstrous, bandaged face stared back.

I let out a raw, guttural scream. I swept everything off the bedside table-the water pitcher, the cups, the vase of flowers he had probably sent out of obligation. They crashed to the floor, shattering into a thousand pieces.

Just like my heart.