I Watched My Friend Get Disfigured

The smell of disinfectant filled the hospital corridors. Hedgar Stane’s parents wept in front of the burn unit’s ICU. But I felt as if there was a filter over my ears. The noise around me was hard to make out. My mother took my hand. “Henry, go keep Hedgar’s parents company. They need you.”I snapped out of my reverie and shook my dizzy head. At that moment, the attending physician walked out and solemnly told Hedgar’s parents to be prepared. “The fire was too strong. The patient suffered third-degree burns on her face and neck. Even though we managed to save her, she will be permanently scarred. “The skin tissue on her face will shrivel and change to varying degrees. She won’t be able to return to how she looked even with plastic surgery.”In other words, the face Hedgar was so proud of was ruined. Irene, Hedgar’s mother, fell limp on the floor, and I instinctively touched my completely unharmed face. My face was smooth, and its lines obvious, just like how I had looke

I just wondered whether Leon would be able to endure the coming hardships. My family might have been neighbors with the Stanes, but as long as I did not take initiative, we would rarely meet.I only saw Hedgar again a week later. Leon was supporting her on a stroll around the area. We ran into each other when I was coming back with my mother from a grocery run.…“Ma’am, allow me to introduce you to my other half, Leon.”Hedgar’s voice was full of joy, even though her face was still wrapped in bandages. I could see the happiness in her eyes. Both my mother and I gave them our blessings, but Leon discreetly stopped holding Hedgar’s hand. “Don’t say that, Hedgar.” Leon shifted uneasily. “My parents don’t know about this yet.”After so many years, I finally saw Hedgar smiling happily like she did when she was a teenager. “Leon, as long as you want to, we can get married tonight. We’ve already promised to be together forever.”When I saw how immersed Hedgar was in the cag

But Leon and his family were unreasonable and said that the money was compensation for the mental trauma they had to go through. They did not return a single cent. Not only did the Stanes lose their money, but also embarrassed themselves. They were utterly humiliated. After living in the area for decades, they no longer had the courage to even leave their house. I wanted to have nothing to do with this, but Hedgar asked to meet me in the residential area’s park. I immediately rejected her, but my father insisted on me meeting her to help her come around.Hedgar shambled over slowly. She had great difficulty walking through the gravel road. When I did not move to help her, she looked awkward. “I might look like an idiot to you. Everyone in the area is laughing at me now.”I was thinking about hurrying back to have dinner at home, so I nodded. “Yeah.”It had been a year since we last met, and she had become much thinner. Her clothes were no longer as beautiful as bef

“You ruined my happiness! Are you happy now?“I want to puke at the thought that we spent the past twenty or so years seeing each other every day.”I became sober at that moment and stared at her in shock as she became an entirely different person.The sudden change in personality caught me entirely off guard. But my puzzlement was just a cheap act to her. “Stop pretending! If I hadn’t forced you to say it, you wouldn’t have told me the truth!“Henry, when are you going to stop pretending to be someone worthy of pity?”Then, Hedgar left with a loud slam of the door. Her heartlessness trampled all over my heart. It was only later that I learned that Leon had gotten engaged that day. He married a rich woman with a grown son. …Irene also tried to get me to marry Hedgar, so I started ignoring the Stanes. Even so, Irene tried multiple times to talk to me. I refused her each time with the harshest words. I told her that I did not want to waste my bright future by taking

After I married Hedgar in my previous life, Irene and James treated me kindly, but only in the beginning. As time passed and we did not have any children, they started ignoring me. But in this timeline, Hedgar was the one with her face ruined, they wanted me to marry her. I just could not find it in myself to treat them kindly. But my father pitied them. He paid James’s hospital bills and even hired a professional caretaker to take care of him. After returning home, he kept on sighing. “James is truly pitiful. He even took care of stray cats, so how did he end up like this?“It’s a pity that Hedgar is such a disappointment.“Henry, is there any way for them to get the money back?”Theoretically, there was, but it was difficult. After all, this was a carefully crafted revenge by Leon’s wife. She had most likely transferred the money to another account. “Forget about Hedgar, but James’s hospital bills are going to be expensive.”I looked down. I did not care abo