Free The Ugly Duckling by Iris Johansen

her.”
    “Poor lady. The first pain is the hardest. When my parents and little brother died, I wanted to die too.”
    It was the first time she had talked about the deathof her family. He turned to face her. “Did they die together?”
    “No, my father was a soldier. My mother and brother were killed in the streets by snipers a year later. They were on their way to fetch water for us.” She looked down at the picture of Nell. “It’s the loneliness and helplessness that are worst. When everything is taken away, it’s hard to find a reason to live.”
    “And what reason did you find?”
    “Anger. I wouldn’t let them have the satisfaction of killing me too.” She smiled with an effort. “And then I found you, and my life had purpose again.”
    He was too moved. He hastened to back away. “Saving me from the sins of caffeine?”
    “Among other things.” She tapped the picture with her forefinger. “You must find a purpose for her.”
    “First I have to find a face for her.” He pulled up the image program in the computer and Nell’s face appeared on the screen. He picked up the computer pen and bent over the computer drawing tablet beside the screen. “Cheekbones?”
    “High.”
    His pen stroked upward on the pad and on the screen Nell suddenly acquired higher cheekbones. “Enough?”
    “A little more.”
    He moved the cheekbones higher.
    “Good.” She frowned. “That turned-up nose must go. Personally, I like it, but it doesn’t go with the cheekbones.”
    He got rid of the nose and inserted a delicate Roman nose. “Okay?”
    “Maybe, we’ll see.”
    “The mouth …”
    “I want to keep the mouth.”
    “Then we’ll have to square the jaw.” He adjusted the line of the jaw. “The eyes?”
    She tilted her head. “Can we slant them upward just a little. Like Sophia Loren?”
    “It will require stitches.”
    “But it would be very interesting, yes?”
    His pen changed the shape of the wide-set eyes. The change was enormous. The face on the screen now appeared strong, cleanly molded, and vaguely exotic. Yet the wide, mobile mouth gave a look of vulnerability and sensuality. It was not a classically beautiful face, but it fascinated and arrested.
    “A little Sophia Loren, a little Audrey Hepburn …” Tania murmured. “But I think we must work on the nose.”
    “Because I did it without your input?” he asked dryly.
    “Because it’s a little too delicate.” She leaned forward, her gaze on the computer screen. “We are doing well. This is a face to launch a thousand ships.”
    “Helen of Troy? Our Nell doesn’t look like a Greek goddess to me.”
    “I never thought Helen of Troy looked like a goddess. I think she had a face that was unforgettable, that made people want to never look away from her. That’s what we must do here.”
    “And what happens after we give her this face?” He turned to look at her. “A change that dramatic can traumatize.”
    “From what you tell me, she’s already traumatized. I doubt if turning into Helen of Troy will do any more harm to her, and it may help her.” She said, “If she has no purpose, she will at least have a weapon. This is important.”
    “Is that why you let me operate on you?”
    She nodded. “The scars did not matter to me, but I knew it would matter to the people around me. I have my living to earn, and people shy away from ugliness.”
    He smiled. “I suppose I could make her look like you. It’s not such a bad face.”
    “It’s a very good face, but it would cause problems when I get you to admit that you cannot live without me. You’re confused enough as it is. No, we will give her this wonderful face to smooth her way.” She nodded at the pen. “Now, let’s see if we can make the nose just a
little
thicker.”
    N icholas met Joel as he was exiting Nell’s hospital room the next evening.
    “Don’t talk to me,” Joel said curtly. He waved the clipboard. “The permission-to-operate authorization.”
    “She