Chapter 0 : intro

“You’re the only one who survived.”

Angelica opened her eyes to a white ceiling and a voice she didn’t recognize.

For a few seconds, she didn’t understand what the man was saying. Her head felt heavy, her throat burned, and something tight covered the left side of her face.

Then she remembered the fire. And screaming. She had screamed so much her throat felt hollow. She tried to move and pain shot through her entire body.

“I’ll advise you not to do that.”

A hand caught her shoulder before she could sit up.

“You’re badly burned. You need to stay still.”

Her breathing became uneven.

“The house.”

The man beside her didn’t answer.

“My family.”

His silence told her everything his voice wasn’t saying. Angelica stared at the ceiling.

“No.”

Her voice broke.

She tried to get up again.

“No, no, no…”

“Angelica .”

She stopped. This stranger knew her name. Why did he know her name?

She turned toward him, or tried to. The movement pulled painfully at the side of her face.

“How do you know my name?”

He didn’t answer immediately.

He was a stranger. She was sure of that.

His clothes were still stained with smoke, and there was a bandage wrapped around one of his hands. He looked like he had been there when the fire happened.

“Who are you?”

“Someone who got you out.”

She stared at him.

“How?”

“You don’t remember?”

She shook her head. The movement hurt.

Fragments came back instead. Heat. Smoke. Her screaming. A door she couldn’t open. Her hand slipping against a door handle and her body hitting the floor.

Then arms around her, dragging her across the floor while everything behind them burned.

After that, nothing. Her brain couldn’t remember anything past that, and when she tried to push further, pain and more pain kept on following.

“How long have I been here for?”

“Three days.”

Her eyes widened. She looked toward the window. Daylight spilled through the curtains, with no indication of the time passing by.

Three days. It’s been three days since she last saw her family. Or what was left of it. Were they in that fire too?

She looked down at her hands. They were wrapped in bandages too.

“What happened to my face?”

The stranger didn’t answer. She didn’t know why she asked when she already knew. That fire had burned her and left her raw. She turned her head toward the window again, refusing to ask twice.

A nurse came in soon after, followed by a doctor. They checked her wounds, changed her medication, and told her things she didn’t really hear.

There were talks about third-degree burns. Possibilities of skin grafts. Recovery and surgery. Every time she woke, there was a different nurse, a different doctor, another round of medication.

They told her about how serious the burns were and the damage they had done to her face. They also told her she was lucky. She didn’t feel lucky.

She didn’t ask to see a mirror. She didn’t need one. She knew she was probably looking awful.

The day after that the stranger returned. He never stayed long. He never told her much about himself either.

A few days after she woke, the stranger came back with a glass of water and helped her sit up.

The television mounted across the room was on. She hadn’t paid attention to it before but now it was showing breaking news.

The news anchor was speaking over footage of a burned mansion.

“Tragedy struck the Vale family three nights ago when a devastating fire destroyed their residence, claiming the lives of several members of the family.”

Angelica stopped drinking; the water wouldn’t go down her throat. The next image appeared on the screen.

It was a photograph.

A beautiful blonde-haired woman smiling beside a man in a black suit. Her heart lurched. She knew that face. She knew the man standing beside it too.

“Cassian Devereaux, chairman of Devereaux Holdings, has yet to make a public statement following the death of his ex-wife, Angelica Vale…”

The glass slipped from her hand and shattered against the floor. The stranger stood immediately muttering something but she couldn’t hear him. In fact she couldn’t hear anything except a ringing in her ear.

Angelica Vale.

Ex-wife of Cassian Devereaux.

Dead.

That was her wasn’t it? The fire hadn’t scrambled her brains.

Her own face was staring back at her from the television.

By the time Angelica was strong enough to sit up for more than a few minutes, the stranger walked into her room carrying a folder.

“What’s that?”

“An opportunity.”

She gave him a tired look. She didn’t understand what he was trying to say

“I’m in a hospital with half my face burnt off currently. I don’t see how I can help you.

“Oh, but you can.”

“My family is dead.”

“The whole world knows that too.”

“And you’re calling whatever this is an opportunity?”

He placed the folder on the bed.

“There is a family willing to take you in.”

She stared at him.

“Take me in?”

“They come from old money. They also want an heir.”

She almost laughed.

“Why would they want me?”

“They know about you.”

“Who are they?”

He mentioned a Voss family. It was one of those families whose wealth had existed for so long that people stopped asking where it came from.

Angelica looked at the folder again.

“What do they want in return?”

“Nothing.”

She looked up.

“Nothing comes free of charge.”

“They want a daughter. You have no family. An orphan and a childless family. Your needs align.”

This man was insane. He was brash with his words and he was saying too many things that didn’t make sense.

She considered the thought for a while before asking tentatively “What happens if I agree?”

“You’ll leave here under their protection. You’ll have doctors. Whatever treatment you need. Eventually, you’ll have surgery.”

Her fingers grazed the burnt half of her face and touched the edge of the folder.

“And my name?”

“You’ll have a new one.”

She looked at him.

“What would I be called?”

“Seraphina Voss.”

She turned the name over in her mind. Seraphina. Burning one. Ironic considering she burnt in the flames.

Her memory wasn’t perfect but she remembered her ex-husband and how he had abandoned her family up to the point of the fire. For better or worse, her life had become so much worse with him.

Her fingers tightened around the folder.

“What happens after the surgery?”

“Your old life is gone. You become a heiress.”

Starting over sounded almost laughable. But the thought appealed to her only if she could do one thing.

Get revenge on her ex-husband.

“I’ll do it.”

The stranger nodded but she had a caveat “On one condition.”

The stranger arched a curious brow. “I have to get my revenge on my ex-husband. Or I won’t do it. No matter how long it takes.”

The stranger pursed his lips before saying “No problem.”

“Then we have a deal.”

She smiled, Cassian Devereaux would wish she had died that night.