Sculpted in Her Image

These past few years, Pierce has performed plastic surgery on me many times.

Every single time, I went willingly.

I believed he was trying to help me escape my ex-fianc's pursuit through these procedures.

He loved me.

Until I saw a photo of the woman he loved most during her lifetime.

Because I looked just like her.

Once again stood up at City Hall.

This was the fifth time Pierce had run from our wedding.

I had a sinking feeling that marrying Pierce in this lifetime would be impossible.

That evening, I found him at the club owned by his friend Steven.

"I'm seriously done with you. How many times have you run now?"

"Isn't Lester going to want to kill you?"

Steven snatched the drink from Pierce's hand.

The door stood slightly ajar. I didn't have the courage to push it open.

Pierce had drunk himself into a stupor.

But the words that came out of his mouth felt like a sharp blade.

Stabbing straight into my heart.

"I really can't deceive myself anymore. She's not Juliet."

"Even though she looks more and more like her. That expression, those eyes."

"I don't love her. I'm very clear about thisI love Juliet."

I didn't know Juliet personally, but I knew of her.

She was Pierce's white moonlighthis first love.

She had died in a car accident several years ago.

Three years together, and I thought I could warm his heart.

But today, his absence again made me wake up from the dream.

Perhaps I had never truly entered Pierce's heart.

And I had never really understood this man.

In the dimly lit private room, Pierce's suppressed voice came through again.

Carrying pain and a torn, sobbing quality.

"All these years, I've sculpted her to look more and more like Juliet, but I really can't deceive myself. They're fundamentally two different people."

Steven seemed to sigh, saying Pierce was becoming more and more obsessed.

"She's still not similar enough. Juliet's waist was so slender you could encircle it with one hand, but Lester's waist isn't delicate enough yet."

Steven said, "You're not going to coax her into another surgery, are you? Don't you care if she lives or dies?"

Pierce laughed coldly. "Believe it or not, with just one word from me, she'd give me her life. What's removing a few ribs compared to that?"

"Stop with the surgeries. Someone's going to die."

Steven tried to persuade him. "And aren't you afraid that one day when she learns the truth, she'll leave you?"

Pierce's tone was contemptuous. "Would she dare? Everything she has now is because of me. Without me, could she even survive?"

My heart plummeted, my mind went blank, and my entire body trembled.

So all these years, I'd been living in Pierce's lies.

He had once told me that by changing my appearance, I could escape the misfortune that person had brought me.

Pierce was a highly skilled plastic surgeon.

Over these years, he had performed many surgeries on me, both major and minor.

Watching myself become increasingly unfamiliar in the mirror, I had once felt as though I'd been reborn.

But now, I finally understood.

These three years, he had simply been sculpting me into the work of art he desired.

I was nothing more than a substitute.

Pierce had a woman he deeply loved named Juliet.

She had died in a car accident during the year he loved her most.

Pierce had nearly lost his own life because of it.

He said he'd tried everything, but in the end could only watch helplessly as his beloved died in his arms.

He had been depressed for a long time after that.

Dragging my exhausted body, I returned to our "home."

Over three years, every corner of this place bore traces of my life here.

But today, I truly wanted to leave.

If I couldn't get closer to him, then I should distance myself.

My mind was in chaos. For the first time, I felt utterly lost about life.

When I met Pierce, I thought I could live well for the rest of my life.

But why had things turned out this way?

I loved him so much, believed he was my redemption.

He was the one who helped me escape that nightmare of a past.

Yes, during the time when Pierce was depressed after Juliet's death, we met.

I encountered Pierce at the most desperate moment of my life.

Meeting him was like a drowning person grasping a lifeline.

That day, I was being frantically chased and attacked by my ex-fianc, who seemed to be having a violent episode.

In my panic, I stumbled into an unfamiliar garden where I ran into Pierce.

He saved me and brought me back to his home.

The warm lights in his house and a bowl of hot noodles completely soothed my terror.

So I told him about my ordeal.

I had once had a sweet romance too.

With an excellent fianc from a privileged background.

But at some point, my fianc changed.

He became easily irritated and angry.

Then he started hitting me.

"It's all because of you. Everything is because of you."

He would scream madly while beating me.

I didn't know what I had done to make him this way.

No matter how much I asked, he never gave me a reason.

Every few days he would have another episode, beating me black and blue.

Even when I called the police, they treated it as a domestic matter and didn't want to get involved.

Besides, his family had power and connections. Even if he was taken in, he'd be out quickly.

After each beating, he would kneel and repent.

But then he'd do it all over again.

I tried many times to take him to see a psychiatrist, but he strongly resisted.

Watching him become more unhinged day by day, I couldn't take it anymore and chose to run.

But he found me every single time.

Each time he found me, another even more frenzied beating and abuse would follow.

Later, he became increasingly crazy, even imprisoning me and forbidding me from contacting the outside world.

I broke down. Several times I even thought about death.

I begged him to let me go. He said, "You can never leave me. I became this way because of you. We're locked together for life."

My ex-fianc Chris said I could never escape him in this lifetime.

I had no parents, no family, no one. I had nowhere to turn for help.

After that encounter, I stayed at Pierce's house.

Every day I helped him with household chores and such.

Pierce said I was so talented, I shouldn't just stay at home all day.

I should shine in my professional field.

But if I went out to work, Chris would find me quickly.

I didn't dare imagine what would happen then.

So Pierce suggested I get plastic surgery.

I was persuaded by his bold idea.

Because I wasn't willing to just live under Chris's shadow like this.

As long as I became another person, Chris wouldn't be able to find me.

Then I could live a normal life.

I thought about it for a few days and agreed to Pierce's plan.

After recovering from the first surgery, the way Pierce looked at me changed.

I remember when the last bandage was removed from my face, Pierce hugged me tightly.

He said excitedly that the surgery was very successful.

Looking at the face in the mirror that had changed so dramatically, I secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

I thought I could finally escape from Chris.

I was so happy that I overlooked his bloodshot eyes and the tears pooling in them.

Later, he told me it was the most successful surgery he'd ever performedabsolutely perfect.

Now I knew that the "perfection" he spoke of contained the dark "wish" deep in his heart.

A few days after the first surgery, Pierce confessed his feelings to me.

He said I was an angel sent by heaven to save him.

Because of me, he had rediscovered the courage and confidence to live.

Because of Chris, I wasn't ready to immediately enter another relationship.

So I didn't agree right away.

But he wasn't in a hurry.

Slowly, he moved me with his actions and sincerity.

He was someone who paid great attention to detail and creating special moments.

He was good-looking, gentlemanly, and romantic.

Eventually, I fell for him.

Pierce said his angel should be the most perfect woman in the world. He wanted to make me the most beautiful bride.

So he performed several more surgeries on me.

The first few times, I agreed easily.

Because I still harbored fear of Chris.

Only by becoming another person could I feel safe.

And only Pierce's scalpel could accomplish that.

But later, during a procedure to implant facial prosthetics, whether due to improper operation or something else.

After the surgery, I developed an infection and nearly died on the operating table.

I remember they worked to save me for a day and a night before I was out of danger.

After that, I developed a kind of post-traumatic fear response to plastic surgery.

I was no longer enthusiastic about itin fact, I became quite resistant.

But each time, he desperately persuaded me.

I knew his behavior was pathological, but I loved him too much.

I couldn't bear to refuse him, so time after time I obediently lay down on the operating table.

I became less and less like my original self.

Every time a surgery was completed, the way he looked at me was so bright.

Now I had finally found the answer.

The reason why he was so obsessed with performing surgery on me.

I was nothing more than a substitute for his white moonlight.

A substitute who resembled his white moonlight.

Only now did I realize belatedly why his gaze at me was always so strange.

As if he was looking through me, seeing someone else.

I opened the door to Pierce's usually locked study.

Never before had I felt such urgency to know what Juliet actually looked like.

I had known about her existence before.

But I had never allowed myself to compare with a dead woman.

After searching the room, I found a hidden compartment behind the bookshelf.

Opening it, I found a photo album and a thick notebook inside.

The moment I opened the album, my heart was pounding.

As if I was about to unveil a world mystery.

Two faces so similar, similar enough to make me feel suffocated.

The same eyes, the same contours, even the small dimple on the left corner of the mouth.

I didn't know what kind of mentality drove Pierce to sculpt my face into Juliet's likeness.

My body felt cold, frozen stiff.

I couldn't help but touch my own face.

For the first time, resembling another person filled me with terror.

Once again I felt the same panic as when I was fleeing from Chris's pursuit.

So frantic, and so desperate.

Driven by curiosity, I opened the notebook.

It recorded Pierce's life and emotional state since Juliet's death.

I knew there must be records about me.

Soon enough, I found them.

"I met a woman. Her arrival seems to have added a bit of light to my life. But I know she's not you, so I'm gradually transforming her to look like you."

"Today, I gave her the same double eyelids as yours."

"I gave her the same dimples as you. When she smiles, it's like seeing you before me."

Like some kind of self-torture, I flipped through page after page.

With each entry I read, I felt my heart being trampled by thousands of horses, being cut to pieces.

Very late, Pierce finally came home.

By then I had already washed up and was lying in bed.

A few hours had been enough for me to calm myself.

Pierce first apologized, explaining that there was a sudden emergency at the hospital, so he couldn't go with me to get our marriage license.

He promised that next time, this definitely wouldn't happen again.

So many promises now that even his excuses came smoothly.

"Honey, I really messed up. There won't be a next time."

I smiled and said it was okay, work came first.

I didn't think there would be a next time anyway.

He looked at me with surprise, as if shocked by my calm reaction.

Because the previous times, I had been angry with him for quite a while.

He held me, saying many things to comfort me. I leaned quietly in his arms.

Appearing to listen carefully, but inside my emotions were all mixed up.

I was even trembling with fear.

Pierce cupped my face and asked with concern what was wrong.

I said, "I'm afraid we won't be able to be together in the future."

Pierce kissed me and reassured me it wouldn't happen.

We held each other and talked for a long time. I held back from pushing him away.

He loved Juliet so much, yet here he was with me, performing this pretense of affection.

I suddenly felt this person was so strange.

He gently stroked my waist.

I thought of his conversation with Steven and couldn't help but get goosebumps all over.

I was waiting for what he would say next.

Like waiting for his verdict, to let myself give up completely again.

Sure enough, he finally spoke.

"Honey, you studied dance performance. A perfect waistline can showcase the charm of your dancing. I think these few ribs of yours are too prominentthey expose a flaw in your figure."

My heart felt like it had been slashed open, bleeding profusely.

I said, "But I think I'm fine the way I am."

I spoke hesitantly, wanting him to see my unwillingness.

But his eyes flashed with an inexplicable excitement. He hadn't listened to me at all.

"Trust me, it's just a few cuts. Trust my skills. I guarantee I'll make you graceful and incomparably beautiful."

My heart turned to ash as I looked at him with hollow eyes.

He was still gesturing at my waist, as if preparing to cut into a metal object.

He kept muttering various terms, but my heart grew colder and colder.

He had never loved me.

My existence was merely a comfort for his soul.

Or rather, I was his work, an object to commemorate the person who died.

No life, no soul.

Who would care about the feelings of an empty shell?

"Will I die?"

I couldn't help but ask.

"Nonsense. I'm a doctor. Are you questioning my medical skills?"

I smiled bitterly inside.

Every time he told me his medical skills were excellent, how beautiful I would be after surgery.

But not once did he tell me how risky the surgery was, what the failure rate might be.

And I had never questioned him.

For the first time, I felt pathetic.

Today, I didn't want to continue being so foolish.

"Pierce, I don't want any more surgeries. Is that okay?"

Pierce's expression seemed to change, but quickly became gentle again.

"What's wrong? In a bad mood?"

I said, "I think I'm fine as I am. I don't see the need for more surgery."

Pierce's face was no longer gentle.

"Lester, you're becoming disobedient."

I looked exhausted. "Pierce, I'm really tired. I don't want to keep doing this."

Pierce thought my refusal this time was because of his running from the wedding again today.

So he promised me that he would definitely marry me in this lifetime.

Besides me, he wouldn't marry anyone else.

I pushed him away, saying that wasn't the reason.

I said I just wanted to live a normal life, didn't want to keep messing with this face and this body anymore.

That night neither of us could convince the other.

In the end we both stuck to our positions until we fell into exhausted sleep.

The next day Pierce drove me to work.

In the car, I could see Pierce was in a very bad mood.

If it were before, I would have asked him with concern what was wrong.

But now, I didn't want to be considerate anymore.

Seeing that I hadn't acknowledged him for a while, he finally couldn't help but speak.