When the wealthy couple saw their newborn’s face, the mother gasped, “Take him away, he’s a monster.” They abandoned him at the hospital. A kind nurse raised him. Twenty years later, the couple desperately needed a rare surgery. The world-famous surgeon walked in, revealed his birthmark, and…

the cheap vinyl chairs opposite my desk. For a long, agonizing minute, the only sound in the room was the rhythmic ticking of the wall clock. I let them drown in the silence. I owed them no comfort.

Celeste broke first. A ragged, ugly sob tore out of her throat, and she buried her face in her hands.

“Elara,” she gasped, using the name I had built, not continue reading …