Two Hands, Wrapped in Gold
Novelette 14,739 words Recommended by 6 award/anthology sources
"My parents taught me to lie as soon as I could speak. Before I knew the meaning of the words, before I understood heat or fire, and long before I felt the pain of singed flesh, I learned to tell strangers that I burned myself by grasping a hot iron pot."
Content warnings 3
deathdeath-of-a-loved-oneviolence
Quasar links out; the story lives on Uncanny, where the author gets the click.