《After Ten Years of Lies》全部章節：第 1 章 - 第 10 章

It was full of contraceptives and other intimate supplies.The sharper-eyed guests spotted it immediately and started egging him on."Looks like Felix has a long night planned with Ms. Calder.""What can I say? She doesn't get many chances while she's busy playing sick. Tonight I'm going to remind her what she's been missing."If we hadn't set up that ten-year fake-illness wager with her, none of this would have been necessary. She's about to dump that useless husband anyway."Felix Danner wore the smile of a man who'd already won, and the line drew another round of whistles.I lowered my eyes. Every word of it went into me like a nail.So Vivian's illness being fake was common knowledge to these people.Meanwhile my family had burned through everything we owned for a disease that never existed, and it had nearly destroyed us.Felix looked me over with open disgust."Why is the delivery guy still standing here? Get lost. People like you sour the whole room."Kessler, get him

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

Whatever Felix reached for, he was reaching for a dead end.The guests around him went quietly rigid, and not one of them opened their mouth to warn him.Blindfolded, Felix couldn't sit still, and the back of his shirt went dark with sweat."Vivian, you can't do this to me. I'm the one you love. Everything I did, I did for you."This Julian is just the man you made the bet on. You don't have to go this far for him."Vivian wouldn't let it go. She made him choose. In the end he couldn't out-stubborn her, so he picked a capsule and swallowed it, believing he'd just taken a lethal dose.I watched it happen without a word, and Vivian turned to me with an apologetic smile."Does that make you feel a little better?"I nodded, calm on the surface. There were too many things moving inside me for any single one of them to reach my face.Vivian led me out of there full of apologies, promising she'd make it all up to me.In the car, a message from Felix came through, of all things."Ju

"And keep this in mind. She's my woman now."I laughed under my breath. The provocation didn't reach me."Vivian, I already told you it's finished between us. You don't owe me guilt. There isn't a thread connecting you and me anymore."I ended the call, snapped the SIM card in half, and dropped it in a trash can.I wanted a clean goodbye to my own past.Once Vivian understood I wasn't coming back, another idea took shape in her head.Before long, the news that she and Felix were throwing a world-class wedding had gone everywhere.Their happy photographs were on every screen and every billboard in the country, and even I saw them from the other side of the world.In every one of them Vivian nestled against Felix looking blissful, the kind of couple strangers call a match made in heaven.But my instincts told me that expression was something she'd put on.She pulled string after string to get an invitation into my hands. I tore it into confetti without reading a word.The man

The color drained out of her face. Her mouth opened clumsily and nothing came out that could have comforted anyone."Julian, you really won't give me one more chance? We were so happy once."I laughed, cold, and put a hole through the dream for her."Happy? Vivian, do you have any idea what my parents and I went through for that illness of yours? And every bit of it was for nothing."That wasn't happiness. That was the bone you throw a dog to keep it following you."She swayed on her feet like the words had weight.I had no interest in explaining anything else to her. Time was too valuable to spend on a person like this."If there's nothing else, go home. You're the Calder heir. You've got more important things waiting on you. You always did."What surprised me was that she looked straight at me without flinching, and what she said surprised me more."I've already transferred the succession. Calder Holdings isn't mine. It goes to my brother Ethan."Julian, I know the wager is