When She Rose From the Ashes

Chapter 120 The Forgotten Memory

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Her reflection still looked like herself, yet not quite. Most of her features remained, but her contours had been subtly refined. At first glance, she was still Natalic. Look longer, and she had become something else entirely.

Before, Natalie’s beauty had been soft, like a lily–delicate and pure. Now, she was a blazing red rose, sharp–edged, dangerous, breathtaking with a kind of defiant allure.

“Is this really me?”

She raised a trembling hand, fingers brushing her new skin.

Baron’s smile deepened. “It’s you. At sixteen, you were already this dazzling, this untamed.”

Sixteen?

Natalie blinked. She wanted to argue–when had she ever been so bold? But then, unbidden, a memory she had long buried broke the surface.

That year, she had gone abroad for a dance competition. For once, away from home, she dared to try a striking makeup look–fierce, smoldering. The effect was stunning. Too stunning. Strangers stared, whispered, followed. What should have been triumph ended in fear.

She remembered the leers, the mocking laughter, and the accusation that her beauty was an invitation. She had cried, ashamed. In that moment she learned–sometimes, beauty itself was treated as a sin.

After that, she swore off heavy makeup. She wore simplicity like armor, and over time, even the memory blurred.

had never known about it. She had believed it was hers alone to carry. And yet here was Baron,

once said

it have been

raced, searching the fragments of that

after the harassment. She ducked behind a row of trash bins, praying

unseen.

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120 The

And then–she stumbled.

A body.

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man sprawled on the ground, blood soaking his chest. His face was smeared, indistinct in the dark, but when she tried to

rasped–in

much blood, never been this close to death. Her instincts shrieked at her to run, but

had–her wallet, her phone–and dropped

trouble. Here–take this. Call someone. We never saw each other, all

tugged at

Only then did she see

copper stench, the sight of

he whispered. “Bandage me, and

be kidding me!” she hissed,

He was blackmailing her?