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.

believed it was hers alone to carry. And yet

breath caught. Hadn’t he once said they

have been then–during that

fragments of that

back alley, heels clattering against stone, her heart pounding after the harassment. She ducked behind a row of trash bins, praying

unseen.

1/3

The Forgotten

And then–she stumbled.

A body.

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sprawled on the ground, blood soaking his chest. His face was smeared, indistinct in the

he rasped–in the

blood, never been this close to death. Her instincts

had–her wallet, her phone–and

Here–take this. Call someone. We never saw each

tugged at her

against the filthy bricks. Only then did she see the knife, buried deep

copper stench,

he whispered. “Bandage me, and whether

be kidding me!” she

He was blackmailing her?