Chapter 4

Even so, I kept it in mind. The day after my mother's funeral, I went back to the same pharmacy I'd been going to for years and bought Vivian's medicine one last time.

Years ago I'd been a poor kid from a mountain town, and it was Vivian's money that put me through school and got my family down out of those hills and into a real city.

Even knowing what she'd done, I intended to buy this final bottle. Call it repayment for what she'd once given me.

I pay my debts and I settle my scores. Once the debt was clear, I'd walk and never look back.

There had always been something odd about Vivian's specialty medicine. Only Havenford Specialty Pharmacy ever carried it.

I used to think that meant it was rare and precious. Now I understood it was just another moving part in the lie.

What I didn't expect was to run into Vivian's boyfriend, Felix Danner, standing right there at the counter.

He didn't recognize me at first, but the moment he heard the name of what I was picking up, he gave me a strange, measuring look.

"You're Vivian's husband."

I made myself nod. Something tightened in my stomach.

Felix laughed at me, and there was nothing in it but contempt.

"So I finally get to meet the idiot in person. You really did buy her fake medicine for ten straight years.

"Why don't you find out what those miracle pills actually taste like?"

I tried to walk past him. He stepped into my path.

"You know what I'm here for? Something to get me through tonight. Your wife keeps me busy."

I'd learned to eat a lot of humiliation, but my face went hot at that, and I glared at him.

Felix just grinned and hooked an arm around my neck.

I tried to pull free. He was stronger.

Before I could stop him, he shook a pill out of Vivian's bottle and shoved it into my mouth.

I went completely still and stopped fighting. It was sweet on my tongue, and everything under it turned to acid.

Felix roared with laughter.

"That's right. The expensive miracle drug you've been buying for ten years is candy."

Watching the despair land on my face only gave him a better idea. He had his men take me to his birthday party so he could humiliate me in front of an audience.

I didn't resist any of it. By then I was hollowed out.

At the party he announced to the whole room that I was the fool Vivian had strung along for a decade.

Face after amused face turned toward me. I was the entertainment.

"There are actually people who fall for that? I thought it was just a story."

"He has to be the dumbest man alive. Ms. Calder tells him one thing and he hands over everything he's got."

I scanned the room. Vivian wasn't there.

Felix decided the ridicule still wasn't enough, and he came up with something worse.

He set three capsules down in front of me, blindfolded me, and shuffled them so I couldn't tell one from another.

Everyone in the room could hear how much he was enjoying himself.

"One of these is the candy pill Vivian eats. The other two are packed with something lethal. Swallow the wrong one and you'll be dead inside a month.

"Now pick."

While he was saying it, he quietly took the candy pill away, leaving only the two he claimed were deadly.

Whichever one I reached for, he wanted me to believe I was choosing how I died.

I refused to play, and I shouted as loud as I could.

"I'm Vivian Calder's husband. You do this to me and she will not let it go."

Felix sneered.

"You're a pawn in somebody else's bet, nothing more. Vivian doesn't care about you. I'm the one she loves."

When I still wouldn't choose, he pinched up both capsules and tried to force them into my mouth.

Before he could, every head in the room turned toward the door.

Vivian had finally arrived. "Felix. What exactly do you think you're doing?"