Chapter 16

Three years! All that time covering her face, afraid that someone would discover her. Her hands were shaking and tears were wetting her cheeks, her heart was pounding and her breathing was rapid. She felt so exposed and vulnerable, so ugly.

Arthur approached stupefied and lifted her chin; their gazes met and she didn't know how to decipher that gleam in his brown eyes.

“You're so beautiful!” He wiped away the tears that rolled down her skin and hugged her. “I love you, Sam, and it hurts me that you've been hurt.”

She cried on his shoulder. He held her face in his hands and watched her with fascination.

“Your lips are so beautiful... Your nose is perfect, your whole face is symmetrical and beautiful.”

“It's not,” she sobbed and he caressed the large scar that started from her right ear and ended near the corner of her lips. He kissed what she hid so much, but he sensed that that was not the only reason to cover herself and that suspicion tortured him mercilessly.