My Boyfriend Shielded Me from a Lab Fire and Lost a Layer of Skin. So I Broke Up With Him.

On the day she ended things with Liam Sterling, a young woman aimed straight at his deepest wound: the burn scars he earned shielding her face from a flash fire in their chemistry lab. She told him the sight of his hands made her sick. Years later, Liam is her father's attending physician, and she must sit across from him and ask for his help.

He greets her with cold formality, as though she were a stranger, then asks whether his hands cause her any physiological discomfort. Emily Miller, the girl whose lab error started the fire, now works beside him and calls him by name. As old guilt and old tenderness collide, she can only endure his scorn if it gives her father a fighting chance.