Chapter 1

I used to be a skin-grafter. My skill at changing faces was so refined it bordered on the uncanny.

After helping my husband, Woodrow, secure his position as Godfather, I quietly returned to my old trade as a skin-grafter. Then my Godfather husband came to me with a woman and demanded that I make her look like me, so she could take my place as the Godfather's wife.

In a disguised voice, I asked him,

"Does the Godfather understand how brutal a skin-grafting procedure can be?"

"Once the original Godfather's wife is stripped of her skin, her flesh will be exposed. She may go blind... she may live in agony worse than death."

The Godfather glanced at me, his eyes cold as ice.

"I don't care about any of that. Just do it."

My heart felt colder than the knife in my hand. Fortunately, the black robe and mask covered me so completely that he could not recognize me.

I understood very quickly. He did not want to give up my father's arms support, and he could not bear to wrong the girl he truly loved, so he wanted his mistress to wear my face and impersonate me?

In that case, there was no need for me to remember the affection of the past seven years.

The only person who would return to his side would be me.

Since this Godfather, whom my family had raised to power with our own hands, had become disobedient, I would simply replace him.

...

"Fine."

I toyed with the skinning knife in front of me, my tone flat.

"But if you want a new face, you will have to follow my rules."

"During the procedure, this girl and the Godfather's wife must both live here with me. No one is allowed to disturb us."

Woodrow nodded.

"Woodrow, I..." His mistress, Susanna, nestled in his arms and clung to his sleeve, looking frightened and unable to say more.

He immediately soothed her in a gentle voice.

"Hedda is the cherished daughter of the Taylor family. Their arms are the key to my standing as Godfather. I cannot fall out with her."

"Besides, your identity cannot be brought into the light. This is the best way. Endure it a little longer, and from now on, you will be my Godfather's wife."

Expectation rose on Susanna's face, but soon her expression turned worried again.

"Then what will happen to Hedda after she becomes crippled?"

I was rather curious to know how Woodrow would dispose of me as well, so I lifted my eyes. But Woodrow did not answer.

He only dropped a few words of warning, telling me not to breathe a word of this to anyone, then left with Susanna.

I called Woodrow back, my tone heavy with meaning.

"Godfather, when the Godfather's wife is brought here, her hair and skin must not be damaged."

I had to make sure I would not be hurt.

Without turning back, he said, "Mm. I will bring her tomorrow."

When the door to the hidden chamber closed, I took off my mask and removed the black robe, turning from skin-grafter back into Hedda.

I was deeply grateful that I had listened to my father and never told Woodrow that I was the skin-grafter, or that I had family bodyguards of my own.

In a cold voice, I instructed my family bodyguard,

"Find out who Susanna is. I want to know what sort of girl my husband is protecting so carefully."

"Have Una come here. Tomorrow, she will take my place as the skin-grafter and wait for the Godfather to deliver his people."

Back at the villa, I had just finished making Woodrow a plate of doctored strawberry cakes.

Then Woodrow came in carrying a glass of milk.

"Hedda, it's late. Stop working and rest early. I warmed you a glass of milk..."

His voice was tender, his gaze lingering, exactly as it had been seven years ago when he asked me to marry him.

Back then, he stood beneath the moon with a bouquet of bright red roses and swore that he would never fail me in this life.

So I answered that if he never failed me, I would never leave him.

Later, when he went on behalf of the family to inspect an out-of-town casino, he accidentally contracted an infectious disease.

For five days and nights I did not sleep, studying until I found a cure. Ignoring my family's pleas and the long distance, I traveled more than a thousand kilometers to reach him.

After he recovered, he used my treatment to save the entire casino and smoothly ascended to the position of Godfather.

But at the height of his glory, I collapsed from exhaustion and days of worry.

When I woke, he was holding the diamond ring his dead mother had left behind, his eyes red as he proposed to me.

"Hedda, be my wife. I will be good to you for the rest of my life."

"Without you, never mind becoming Godfather. I might have died in a foreign land."

"As long as you say yes, I will make you the happiest woman in the world, the woman every other woman envies."

But now, blinded by his mistress, he had forgotten that I knew medicine.

I soon discovered that the milk in his hand had been drugged. It was the poison he meant to use to send me away to be skinned and turned into a faceless cripple.

Seeing that I did not speak, Woodrow lifted the glass to my lips.

"Hedda, let me feed you."

I did not resist. Looking at him, I drank every last drop, then curved my lips slightly and smiled.

"Woodrow, you're so good to me."

At my words, guilt surfaced in his eyes.

I took the opportunity to pick up the strawberry cakes on the table, my eyes full of anticipation.

"Ever since you became Godfather, you've been busy with family affairs every day and haven't been eating properly. I made these cakes myself. Try them."

He finished them without hesitation and praised them again and again.

He had no idea that once he ate those strawberry cakes, his reproductive organs would be ruined.

My five-year-old son would become his only descendant.