Chapter 3

Henry's POV

"Dream on!" Queenie bellowed. "Nathan is the rightful heir of the Zeller family! If you hadn't been switched with him at birth, you wouldn't have lived such a privileged life, Henry!"

I was enraged by what Queenie said. Tears brimmed in my eyes, and I yelled, "I wish I weren't your brother either! If we hadn't been switched at birth, I wouldn't be the one stuck in this wheelchair! I would've been cherished by my parents, someone who could run freely and live like everyone else!"

Queenie's slap instantly silenced me. I was still glaring at her, even as blood trickled from the corner of my mouth, the fury in my gaze not diminishing the slightest.

Queenie's hands trembled as a trace of regret flashed in her eyes. She then lowered her voice and said, "It's impossible to reason with an ungrateful brat like you. Just stay here and wait for the chauffeur to pick you up, Henry."

With that, she bolted as if her life depended on it.

Those in the hospital stared right at me. There was even a kid walking by who took one look at my face and started bawling.

"That man looks like a monster, Mommy! He's so scary!"

"How can someone look so hideous? Let's get out of here! I don't want to catch whatever's wrong with him!"

"Holy shit! I thought a ghost from a horror movie had shown up! I'm never coming back to this hospital again!"

I sat alone in the hospital lobby. I had no phone, and people avoided me completely. I stayed there from day until night. I cried until I fainted, but nobody came to pick me up. In the end, the nurse on duty felt sorry for me and called Mom.

Upon arriving at the hospital, the chauffeur scowled and grumbled under his breath. "Why hasn't this parasite left the Zeller family yet? He refuses to leave, and now I have to pick him up in the middle of the night."

If I weren't waiting for Mom and Dad to come back, I honestly would've preferred to just die and end it all. After all, everyone treated me like a useless burden who shouldn't exist.

I woke up in the middle of the night feeling something hot dripping on my face. I didn't wake up immediately since the burn had destroyed most of my facial nerves, so by the time I woke up, the candle wax had already cooled and hardened on my face.

A drunk Nathan stood over me, holding up the candle with a crazy look in his eyes. "You must be thrilled, aren't you, Henry? Do you think you can take back everything now that we're not a match?"

He suddenly thrust the candle toward my face, and I shrieked.

"Get that fire away from me! Get it away!"

Nathan laughed hysterically. "Queenie made it clear that I'm the only rightful heir of the Zeller family! You're nothing but a hideous monster! You'll never get your life back, Henry!"

He stumbled out of the room, not noticing that the candle wick had set the curtains on fire. Within seconds, the fire began to spread rapidly.

I was thrown right back to that night over ten years ago, screaming out into the dark with no one coming to my rescue.

I knew the pain of severe burns better than anyone. It felt as though millions of ants were biting me all over, and before long, my skin became a swollen, rotting mess covered in foul, purulent sores. I could still feel the phantom pain even after the wounds had healed.

I had considered ten thousand ways to die, and any of them was better than being burned alive.

Through the thick smoke, I saw someone running toward me. It was Queenie.

…

When I woke up, the air reeked of disinfectant. I was in a hospital room.

Queenie was pacing nervously in the room. She looked disheveled, her arm wrapped in a bandage.

I couldn't understand why it was Queenie again and why she kept doing this to me. She made it impossible to love her, impossible to hate her with all my heart, and impossible to ever escape her.

Queenie noticed that I was awake, and the genuine concern on her face made the whole thing feel completely surreal.

"Queenie…" I croaked

"When Mom and Dad show up," she began, "you'll say that you carelessly knocked the candle over yourself."

I clearly felt my breath choke in my throat when I heard what Queenie said. I was living through the exact same nightmare for the second time. I looked down at the ugly, scarred skin from my old burns, now burned raw and bleeding again by the fire.

I felt completely numb all over. After all, my pain receptors had already been killed off the last time around.