I am Disfigured

The month before the wedding, I was disfigured.

Thomas Gilbert was forced to marry me, a bride with a ruined face.

But I just jumped from one nightmare into another.

My mother-in-law despised me, my sister-in-law tormented me, and my father-in-law pressured me...

And Thomas? He quickly had an affair with my spoiled half-sister.

Thankfully, my mother returned to the country and turned everything around.

She restored my face and helped me humiliate everyone who had wronged me.

Later, I watched indifferently as Thomas got down on his knees in front of me and begged for my forgiveness...

1

"What happened? Why does Phoebe's face look like his?"

The moment my father came home, he saw me sobbing with a horrifying face.

Just half an hour earlier, my half-sister, Lillian Curry, had thrown acid at me.

The acid dripped across the bathroom floor and slowly drained away.

It ruined my once-stunning face. I had been the expressively beautiful woman in high society.

Cracks spread across my skin like shattered porcelain, leaving my face terrifying and grotesque.

I screamed, rushed out of the room, and intended to go to the hospital.

But Lillian had her people pin me down.

"Who do you think you are? You don't deserve to marry Thomas. If it weren't for that ridiculous marriage agreement, I would marry him."

I struggled with all my strength and wished to break free. "Lillian, I've been tolerant of you for years. Why did you have to destroy my face?"

Lilian said, "Because everyone said you were prettier, better than I was since we were kids. I had intended to throw acid at you for years. You have no idea how maddeningly jealous your face made me."

I was beyond tears. Lilian had truly planned to ruin me.

She even dragged me to the mirror and forced me to watch my face being ruined.

"I heard you look just like your mother, that shameless woman. I wonder if she'd feel sorry for you after she saw you like this. Oh, wait. She abandoned you years ago. She probably doesn't even remember you." As she spoke, she yanked my hair and forced me to look at my horrifying reflection.

She had bullied me for years, but she always used harsh words to cut me deep.

But she was right about one thing. My mother had indeed forgotten me.

When I was just five years old, my mother abandoned me and left with my younger brother without a backward glance.

For twenty years, I learned that she was there from the annual birthday card she sent me.

She had no calls or letters for me.

After my parents divorced, my father brought Lillian and her mother into our home. He had kept them for six years, and her mother then got married to my father.

I thought that my father might at least feel some sorry for me and rush me to the hospital after he saw me like that.

But he had a heart of stone since he cheated on my mother.

Even when Lillian openly admitted to what she'd done, my father just scolded her half-heartedly. "How can you marry Thomas now with such a face? Do you know how important my business dealings with his family are?"

2

So in my father's eyes, it couldn't outweigh his business that I was disfigured.

I said, "So that's it? I'm just a pawn in your game of profit. If you're so desperate to climb the social ladder, why don't you marry him yourself?"

My father stepped back in fear, maybe because he saw the despair in my eyes, or maybe my ruined face was just too horrifying. "I don't care about the money anymore. Just hurry up and marry him. Look at your face! I nearly had a heart attack to see it."

Lillian had achieved her goal, and I had become a monster everyone despised.

At the time, there were no domestic treatments for facial reconstruction. I had to go abroad for treatment, and the costs were astronomical.

Even if the entire family's assets were sold off, it wouldn't be enough.

My father hastily set the wedding date. He only brought me along when the two families finally met.

That was actually the first time I saw Thomas. I'd heard that he had just returned from studying abroad.

He looked not bad, though his flirtatious eyes made me uneasy.

Belinda Gilbert, Thomas's mother, glanced at me, and her tone was less than welcoming. "So, this is Phoebe? Why are you wearing a mask and staying silent? I've heard you're very beautiful. Let me take a look."

Everyone in the room turned their scrutinizing eyes on me.

Thanks to Lillian, word of my disfigurement had already spread like wildfire.

As I slowly removed the mask, my last shred of dignity, the sound of collective gasps filled the room.

Belinda gasped, "How ugly you are!"

She knocked over her wine glass in shock.

Lillian's mocking laughter pierced my ears. For a moment, I wanted nothing more than to tear her apart.

My father was ever the schemer and feigned ignorance about my disfigurement.

He put the blame on me. "This girl must've used the wrong skincare products. I thought she was wearing the mask because she caught a cold. I had no idea..."

3

Belinda demanded the engagement be called off, and even Thomas's disdain for me was written all over his face.

But only Jasper Gilbert, Thomas's grandfather, could make the final decision.

Just as my engagement to Thomas had been decided by him, so would its fate.

Jasper and my mother's father had been lifelong friends. They were as close as brothers.

Years ago, during a tragic accident, my grandfather had shielded Jasper from a fatal blow, losing his life on the spot.

Jasper was wracked with guilt and then arranged the marriage between Thomas and me when we were just kids.

It was exactly the one thing that Lillian could never overcome, no matter how hard she tried to ingratiate herself with the Gilbert family.

Jasper had experienced a lot. He frowned tightly when he saw my face.

But he quickly regained his composure. "In my eyes, Phoebe has long been a part of the Gilbert family. It's what's inside that counts. She's a good woman. The marriage will not be canceled."

And so, under Jasper's pressure, Thomas married me.

But a bride with a ruined face was nothing to be proud of. The Gilbert family didn't even bother holding a wedding banquet.

We simply signed the marriage certificate, and that was that.

Jasper gifted Thomas and me a villa as our marital home.

But it was more like a place where I was left completely alone.

Thomas didn't even want to show up on our wedding night. In the end, Jasper had him dragged there against his will.

I would never forget the scene where he was brought in, bound tightly at the gate.

The conversation among Thomas's family that night was so cruel.

Belinda warned Thomas sternly not to touch me in case he might get dirty. "She looks so hideous. How could Thomas even touch her? Just go through the motions tonight. Afterward, feel free to find as many women as you want to give birth to your children," she added with a sneer.

Ralph Gilbert, Thomas's father, stood silently nearby with a long face.

He didn't say a word, but his expression made it clear that he agreed with Belinda.

What I didn't expect was Melissa Gilbert, Thomas's younger sister, to show up as well.

Her words were no kinder than her mother's.

"I swear that Grandpa must be losing his mind. Even if one gave this ugly woman away for free, no one would take her. How could he make my brother marry her? And now she's going to disgrace our grand villa."

At that moment, I was standing on the second-floor balcony, where I could hear every word clearly.

In the darkness, something warm slid down my cheek.

It was hot and unstoppable.

So this was what it meant to be ugly. Everything I did was wrong, and I had to endure insults and ridicule, no matter how baseless.

4

Thomas, true to his mother's wishes, didn't touch me. He didn't even want to see me again.

He banged on my bedroom door with a mix of irritation and impatience. But just as I reached for the doorknob, he blocked it from opening.

He said, "Don't open that door. I don't want to see your ugly face. Don't get any ideas about you and me. You're not my type. Just stay in the villa and don't show yourself unless Grandpa calls us back. Stay out of my sight at other times."

His words were both a mockery and a warning.

I pinched my thigh hard and tried to stop the tears from falling.

Then, for the first time since our marriage, I said to him, "Don't worry, Mr. Gilbert. Just as you don't want to see me, I have no desire to see you, either."

After all, his mother was sharp-tongued and bitter. How could her children turn out any better?

Even though I had escaped the oppressive family I grew up in, my life hadn't moved far from a living hell. Melissa harassed me daily with text messages.

After I blocked her, she escalated by sending box after box of dead rats to the villa. "You are so ugly and deserve to be surrounded by filthy things. Thomas is a good guy, and you don't deserve him."

She wrote from another number.

But I didn't get angry. Only immature people resort to such petty tricks.

I said to myself, "Even the most stunning appearance pales in comparison to a resilient spirit," I replied calmly.

I swore to myself that the tears I shed on my wedding night would be the last.

My face was disfigured, but it would never break my spirit.

Lillian had caused me to suffer and wouldn't get away unscathed.

As for the Gilbert family, if they pushed me too far, I'd make sure they regretted it.

I had studied jewelry design in college. Though my ruined face kept me from going out much, I used the time to sketch designs in the villa.

I even collaborated with several international luxury brands.

I chose jewelry design as my career, perhaps because something awakened in my bloodline.

Or maybe it was my way of staying connected to my mother.

My maternal grandfather had built his fortune by designing jewelry, and my mother had worked in the same field before she got married.

Though I resented her, her annual birthday cards were one of the few emotional anchors in my twenty years of life.

"Dear Phoebe, don't hate me. Live well, and wait for me to go back for you." She wrote such sentences in her elegant handwriting every year.

Her words left me torn between love and hate.

I couldn't help but wonder if she truly had reasons that she couldn't explain to me.

5

On my birthday, I received two gifts.

One was the usual card from my mother.

The other was a birthday party hosted by the Gilbert family.

In their so-called generosity, they only invited my dear maternal relatives, considering my disfigured face.

But I didn't need to think hard to know it was Jasper's doing. "Phoebe, I know Thomas is wrong not to go to you willingly. I'll scold him for that. But to continue the family line, I hope you'll give birth to a great-grandchild soon," Jasper said, his tone gentle but his meaning clear.

He was urging me to get pregnant.

I lowered my gaze and didn't respond.

I simply replied politely, "I see, Grandpa."

Even if my face hadn't been disfigured, I was unwilling to get pregnant with Thomas.

From my observations, despite his overseas educational background, his academic credits had been earned by others on his behalf.

His shining reputation was built on his parents' money, while he spent his time indulging in frivolous pleasures.

He had such a chaotic life and had no right to look down on me.

I indeed found him repulsive.

I didn't expect Ralph to see me as nothing more than a tool for producing children.

After the party, he called me into the garden. "Though you're our daughter-in-law in name, I hope you understand your place. We only let you marry Thomas out of respect for Jasper. But if you can't give birth to a son, we won't keep you in the family," he said coldly.

His tone and attitude were infuriating.

I rolled my eyes internally.

Sure, I was disfigured, but I hadn't fallen so low that I needed to rely on having a son to secure my place in their family.

What era were they stuck in, still fixated on having sons?

I didn't respond, but just as I was about to leave, I witnessed something shocking.

Ralph was facing me and didn't notice what was happening behind him.

His son, whom Ralph took pride in, was entangled with my dear sister, Lillian.

Lillian clung to Thomas like a clingy cat. Her body was wrapped tightly around his.

Thomas was more than happy to kiss her face.