I Know This Much Is True By Wally Lamb

Maria Walker has spent her entire life under the weight of expectations in a world where reputation trumps happiness. As the daughter of the respected Walker family, every choice—including her relationship with kind, loyal Noah Bennett—is judged by high society, who see him as far beneath her standing. Daniel Rothfield faces a different pressure. The powerful, emotionally guarded CEO of Rothfield Holdings has avoided relationships since a devastating breakup left him unwilling to risk love again. Yet his parents and business partners insist a man of his status needs to project stability—and a serious relationship is the perfect image. When Maria and Daniel unexpectedly arrive together at a prestigious charity auction, a fleeting moment ignites rampant speculation. Within hours, social media explodes with rumors that the billionaire CEO and the Walker heiress are secretly dating. Rather than deny it, Daniel proposes a solution: pretend the rumors are true. A fake relationship solves both dilemmas. Maria’s parents would stop pressuring her about Noah, while Daniel’s family and associates would see him finally settling down. It’s meant to be simple, temporary, and strictly controlled. Rules are set: No real feelings. No crossing boundaries. No forgetting it’s just an act. But pretending to be in love proves far more complicated than planned. As they appear together at events, family gatherings, and public functions, undeniable chemistry emerges—shifting from performance to something dangerously authentic. Meanwhile, Noah grapples with quiet jealousy fueled by headlines and photos, Daniel’s past resurfaces to threaten the facade, and their carefully built lie begins to crumble. In a society that measures love by status and appearances, Maria and Daniel face an undeniable truth: the relationship they pretended to have may be the most real thing either of them has ever felt.

Vivienne has always believed she was Ashford’s daughter, never questioning the life she was given—until she is married to Damon Marshal Williams. To her, it’s just another cruel joke that life has thrown at her. To him, it is strategy. Damon knows exactly who she is, and more importantly, what she is worth. What begins as a calculated move soon becomes something neither of them planned. But when Vivienne uncovers the truth behind their marriage, love is no longer enough to make her stay. Faced with a choice between the life she wants and the man she never meant to love; she makes a decision she cannot take back. Years later a kidnapping, forces her back into Damon’s world—one she thought she had escaped. With time, distance, and secrets between them, the lines between past and present begin to blur. And as danger closes in, so does the truth—about the child, about their choices, and about everything they left unfinished. Bound by lies and broken by truth, this is a story of love, power, and harsh decisions that define us.

Before love could lie what is the true face of evil could we face the truth or do we hide behind the what we could see is life that easy

The year I lost my sight at five, I found Stellan Hale half-frozen in the snow. I told my mother I wanted a companion to guide me and begged her to take him in. Then I leaned close to his ear and whispered a promise. "I don't need you to be my guide dog. Just stay alive. Go wherever you want to go." Still, Stellan stayed. After Mom remarried, he became the only person I had left. He watched over me as I grew up, serving as my eyes and my cane year after year. He even gave up his extraordinary talent for painting to study medicine, all for the sake of my sight. Even after he became one of the most brilliant ophthalmologists in the country, I still could not see. On my 25th birthday, someone he had once been close to won a prestigious art prize. He shut himself inside the study, and I could hear pages rustling behind the door. He told me, his voice carefully even, that he was writing my birthday wishes. I smiled and moved toward him, wanting to kiss his cheek, when words suddenly scrolled across the darkness behind my eyes. "Wake up, you blind little fool. He's tearing every one of his paintings to shreds. On the back of each one, he even wrote 'Go to hell, Elara Langley.' "Stop walking. There's a wire on the floor ahead of you. One more step and you're dead." I froze. Then I smiled again and kept walking. "Stel, Stel, every wish you made for me is going to come true."

Five years after our divorce, my ex-husband, Alex Walsh, reserved the most expensive restaurant on the Hudson for Lydia Grant's birthday. She was Hollywood royalty. I was the ex-wife he wanted the world to forget. I stood outside with a white cane in one hand and five-dollar bunches of red roses in the other, trying to sell them to strangers. A dark red carpet stretched across the entrance, with reporters and fans packed behind the barricades. Whenever camera flashes exploded, I knew from the cheers that another celebrity had arrived. Security had chased me off more than once, but the diners here tipped well, and I was still twenty dollars short of the ingredients for my son's birthday cake. Five years ago, I had taken a seven-hundred-thousand-dollar check from his mother and gone along with the affair scandal she staged. Now an advanced meningioma had crushed my optic nerves and left me completely blind. The moment Alex recognized me, he kicked over my flower basket and flung a stack of bills into my face. "You had no trouble taking that check five years ago. How'd you end up selling flowers on the street?" He pulled Lydia, a woman who looked disturbingly like me, against his side. His voice turned to ice. "Open your eyes and look. I replaced you with someone better." I dropped to my knees and felt across the pavement for the scattered bills. When my fingers found one, I turned toward his voice. "Sir, would you like to buy a rose?"

I have a secret. If I touch anyone, I will be able to see the face of the person they love the most. Ever since Dominic Hatterson has moved to the house next door when he was seven years old, I'm the one he loves the most. When he holds hands with me as an 18-year-old, I remain the person he loves the most. When he proposes to me at the age of 22, I'm still the person he loves the most. On the morning of our third year anniversary, I tidy his collar for him. The moment my fingertips touch his Adam's apple, I close my eyes out of reflex. Yet, that's when I see two faces. One belongs to me. The other belongs to a woman I've never seen before. That night, Dominic's phone lights up. "Thank you for spending the day with me, Dom." It's been 21 years since Dominic and I met. I've touched him over 100 thousand times already. And yet, this is my first time finding a mistake.