Lia Cassidy sat on the bed, fighting tears of humiliation, knowing her body disgusted men. The same nightmare of being attacked by two assailants with knives, had jerked her awake once again.

At least, Lia thought, I can be grateful for being alive.

Since then, she’d given up thinking in terms of relationships, surrendering to the reality of a life alone, without love, and without a partnership.

She instead shifted her focus to Delos charity, a place that welcomed her hard work and her love of children. At least Lia could do some good for them by giving them her love, care and attention. And those little ones were like bright flowers, radiant under her care here in Costa Rica.

She smiled. The children were curious little things. The first time Lia had stepped into the Home School Foundation building in La Fortuna, she had tried to gird herself for the children's curiosity about her scars. But unlike men, the children were simply curious and wanted to touch them. Lia had seen their sympathy in their large, wide eyes as she crouched down, allowing them to touch her scar, to feel it, to see sadness come to their tiny faces that never lied about anything. The children had long ago accepted her as she was, and adored her because she was there for them. Her scars were never an issue; in fact, these children had seen their own share of misfortune, and it bonded them more closely with this American angel who was here to teach, love, and support them.

Finally, Lia fell into a light, restless sleep. She never slept deeply after a nightmare, and knew she’d wake up early, feeling ragged, tired and stressed out. But just the act of getting a shower, clean clothes, washing her hair and getting ready to go to the school that sat five hundred feet away from her small home, made her heart sing.

Still, her heart yearned for the right man to walk into her life. She had just about accepted that the odds of that happening were so low, there was no point thinking about it. After all, who would want a carved-up woman with a jagged scar on one side of her face? No one..