Chapter 2

Avelina’s POV 

I don’t know how long I’d been asleep, but everything felt distant—like I was underwater. Then I heard my own voice, hoarse and weak, echoing through my mind.

“Zayne… please, don’t leave me.”

My eyelids fluttered open slowly. The light above me was too bright, like a thousand suns blinding me at once. My throat was dry, and my body felt like it had been torn apart and stitched back together again. I tried to move, but pain throbbed through every limb.

I blinked a few times. The ceiling was white. The walls were white. Everything was white.

Where am I?

I turned my head slightly, and that’s when I saw the tubes, the machines beeping rhythmically beside me. My face felt tight. Too tight.

I reached up slowly, my fingers trembling as they brushed against my face. Bandages. Thick ones.

Panic rose in my chest.

“What the hell?” I rasped.

I sat up with a gasp, and pain shot through my body like lightning. I screamed.

Almost immediately, nurses rushed in. Three of them. One of them grabbed my shoulders gently, trying to ease me back down.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” she said in a soothing voice.

“Why—why is my face wrapped?” I asked, my heart pounding. “What happened to me?”

They exchanged a look. Then one of them stepped forward and gave me a soft smile.

“You were in an accident,” she said. “A bad one. Your face... it was severely damaged. We had to do plastic surgery to save it.”

My breath caught in my throat.

Plastic surgery?

I didn’t say anything for a while. I just touched the bandages again, my heart breaking all over again. Zayne…

Suddenly, it hit me.

“My baby,” I whispered, touching my belly. “My baby! Is my baby okay?!”

One of the nurses came closer, placing a calming hand on my arm.

“Your baby is fine,” she said with a reassuring smile. “Still holding on strong. We’re giving you an injection every day to help with development since you’re still on the drip.”

I burst into tears. Relief, pain, fear—all crashing into me at once.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

“Do you want to call someone?” one nurse asked. “We saw someone trying to reach you, but your phone was locked, we couldn't pick the call.”

“Please,” I said. “Give me the phone. It has to be Zayne. I need to talk to him.”

The nurse handed me my phone. My fingers shook as I unlocked it. I opened the call log—and my heart dropped.

It wasn’t Zayne.

It was my mom.

“Mom,” I whispered, as tears spilled down my face.

I dialed her.

The moment she answered, I heard her voice crack.

“Avelina? Oh my God, baby! Where have you been?! I’ve been calling every day, I even went to the police to help look for you, it's been a month!”

“Mom,” I cried, covering my mouth with one hand. “I’m sorry… I’ve been in the hospital. I was in an accident. I’ll send you the address… please come.”

I was still on the phone when the door opened.

A tall man stepped in, dressed in black joggers and a white hoodie. I froze.

My heart skipped.

Zayne?

But it wasn’t him.

“You’re awake,” he said with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

I stared at him. He looked familiar. Then it hit me.

Mikhail.

Zayne’s yiunger brother.

I sat up quickly, pain rippling through me. I was about to speak, thinking maybe Zayne had sent him—maybe he cared, maybe he was here to apologize—but Mikhail spoke first.

“I’m so sorry,” he said softly. “I was the one driving the car that hit you.”

I blinked.

“What?”

“I didn’t see you crossing. I tried to stop but…” He ran a hand through his hair. “It all happened so fast.

I was speechless. The irony. I thought Zayne sent him.

Turns out, he almost killed me.

Mikhail took a seat beside the bed, watching me with a mix of guilt and discomfort.

“What’s your name?” he asked. “Do you have any family? I need to compensate for what I did. Anything you need—”

I didn’t answer. I just stared.

He stood up, pulled out a business card, and dropped it on the table.

“I’m leaving the country tonight for a hockey tournament,” he said. “I would have left earlier, but I stayed because of you. Now that you’re awake, I can go. If you need anything, call me. I’ll be back in two weeks. Where do you live? Maybe I can visit.”

Still, I said nothing.

He gave me a faint smile. “Take care of yourself.”

Then he walked out.

The moment the door clicked shut, I broke.

I cried so hard, the bandages on my face grew damp. The pain in my chest was worse than any injury.

After what felt like hours, a nurse walked in.

“It’s time to take off your bandages,” she said gently.

Two nurses helped remove them, slowly, carefully. I closed my eyes, too scared to see.

Then one of them handed me a mirror.

“Here,” she said. “You’re beautiful.”

I opened my eyes and looked.

My hands began to tremble. My breath caught in my throat.

This wasn’t me.

This face—these eyes, the cheekbones, the lips. It wasn't my face.

I dropped the mirror. It shattered on the ground.

“What have you done?” I cried.

The nurses looked confused, worried.

“What do you mean?” one of them asked.

“This isn’t my face!” I screamed, my voice echoing through the sterile hospital room. “This is not me! What have you done to me?!”

A nurse rushed to my side, trying to hold me still. “Please, calm down, Miss,” she said gently. “We didn’t have a choice. You were in critical condition when you came in.”

Another nurse stepped forward, her voice calm but firm. “Your face was... completely damaged in the accident. The doctors had to act fast. If we waited for you to wake up, there might’ve been nothing left to fix.”

My hands trembled as I touched my cheeks. “So you gave me someone else’s face?”

“We didn’t know it wasn’t yours,” the first nurse said, exchanging a look with her colleague. “We found a photo in your pocket… of a girl about your age. We thought it was you. You had no ID, and your phone was destroyed. We just recently got it repaired.”

I blinked rapidly, heart sinking, as I recognized the face. “It was her face. The girl in the photo… my sister.”

They looked stunned.

“I didn’t even know I had a sister until recently,” I said, the weight of

everything crashing down. “But now… now I’m wearing her face.”

Tears streamed down my cheeks. “You have to bring back my face… this one doesn’t belong to me.”