When Love Turns into Betrayal 의 모든 챕터: 챕터 91 - 챕터 100

The letter arrives during our honeymoon.We're in Santorini, Greece. White buildings cascading down cliffs. Blue water stretching to infinity. A world away from New York and trials and everything that tried to break us.Harper forwards the email. Scanned copy of a letter that arrived at the office. Prison return address.Should I open it? she texts. Or burn it?I'm lying on our balcony, sun-warmed and content, when I see the message. Liam's inside making coffee. We have nowhere to be. Nothing to do except exist together in this perfect bubble.Open it, I text back. Send me a photo.Five minutes later, the image comes through. Ethan's handwriting. Smaller than I remember. More careful.Violet,I know you're on your honeymoon. I know this is terrible timing. But the parole hearing made me realize I had one more thing to say. One final thing before I let you go completely.You were right to be indifferent. Right to not care whether I stayed in prison or got out. Right to build a life so

The box arrives three weeks after we return from Greece.No return address. Just my name in careful script and a postmark from upstate New York. Heavy. The size of a microwave."Should I call Jordan?" Liam eyes it suspiciously. "After Richard and Chen, I don't trust mysterious packages.""It's from a law firm." I point to the label I noticed. "Henderson and Associates. That was Victoria's estate attorney."We open it carefully anyway. Inside are photo albums. Dozens of them. And a letter on law firm letterhead.Ms. Carter,Per Victoria Brooks's instructions, these items were to be delivered to you six months after her death. She was quite specific about the timing. Inside you'll find photographs and personal effects belonging to your father, James Carter. Items Victoria kept after his passing that she now wishes you to have.There is also a letter. She wrote it shortly before entering hospice.Our condolences on your loss.I pull out the photo albums with shaking hands. Open the first

Wait.I sit up in bed at three AM, heart racing. Something's wrong. Something's very wrong."Liam," I shake him awake. "Liam, we're already married."He blinks at me, confused and half-asleep. "What?""We got married. Six months ago. On the rooftop. We're already married." I'm spiraling now, can feel it happening. "This chapter doesn't make sense. We're past the wedding. We're on our honeymoon. We came back. Victoria died months before we even got married. The timeline's completely wrong.""Vi." He's fully awake now, sitting up. "What are you talking about?""The story. Our story. It's all out of order. Victoria died in chapter eighty. We got married in chapter eighty-nine. But now we're in chapter ninety-four and suddenly you're asking if I'm having pre-wedding panic?" I'm breathing too fast. "None of this makes sense.""Okay, I need you to slow down." Liam takes my hands. "You're having a panic attack. Let's breathe together. In for four. Hold for four. Out for four.""No, you don't

"I know what you're thinking," Harper says, setting the table for dinner party number three this month. "We already did the bachelor and bachelorette parties after the wedding. Now we're doing a rehearsal dinner ten months post-wedding. The timeline is completely backwards.""I wasn't thinking that," I lie."You were absolutely thinking that." She's arranging flowers, the same wildflowers from our actual wedding that she somehow sourced again. "But here's the thing. You never had a rehearsal dinner. The first wedding, Victoria planned everything and you just showed up. This wedding, we did it so fast there wasn't time. So now, ten months in, we're having the dinner you should have had.""A retroactive rehearsal dinner for a marriage we're currently living.""Exactly." She stands back, surveys her work. "Perfect. Tonight we celebrate what comes before. Even though the before is technically after."Liam emerges from the bedroom in the nice shirt I bought him last week. "So we're rehears

Two months after our anniversary wedding, I'm asked to give a TEDx talk.The email comes from a woman named Sarah who runs a conference on resilience and transformation. She's followed the foundation's work. Read the articles about Knight-Carter Ventures. Heard about my story.We'd love for you to share your journey. Twenty minutes. Your choice of topic. We think your voice could help thousands of people who are trying to rebuild after betrayal."I don't do public speaking," I tell Liam, showing him the email."You speak at foundation events all the time.""That's different. That's to rooms of twenty people who already understand. This is, this is thousands of people in person and millions online potentially. That's terrifying.""So say no."I stare at the email. "But what if I say yes?"He looks at me carefully. "Do you want to say yes?""I don't know. Part of me wants to hide. Keep my story private. Not broadcast my trauma to the world." I pause. "But another part thinks, what if my