His Perfect Lie

The day I found out about Kelvin's diagnosis was the same day he installed a camera in our bedroom. That evening, I accidentally overheard him on the phone, making a solemn pledge: "I won't touch her again. I've sent you the account passwords, and you can log in anytime to check." "I've made up my mind to stay loyal for love." Watching his earnest, flushed face, I quietly fed the diagnosis letter into the shredder. Stay loyal for love... Well, then, let it be for a lifetime. Seeing "ALS" on Kelvin's diagnosis nearly knocked me off balance. Three months ago, when Kelvin slipped during a hiking trip in the Alps and ended up in the hospital, I asked the doctors for a full check-up, just to be sure. I never imagined this result. "Right now, there's no cure for ALS. We can only prescribe medication to slow it down, but the eventual outcome can't be changed." The doctor looked at me with a sympathetic gaze.

On our wedding anniversary, I received a notification about the theater tickets I'd booked. Then Miguel Chavez called, his voice flat, "Got a surprise for you! See you later!" I couldn't help but get excited and put on my best makeup. But I waited and waited, until the film ended, and he never showed up. Later, I saw a post from his first love on Facebook. It was a picture of Miguel busy in the kitchen. The caption read, “Even though we couldn't make it to the theater, at least someone knows how to make up for it!” Turns out he was with her again. In the past, I would've exploded with questions, but this time, I didn't want to make a scene. I was exhausted. In the cold of November, I stood at the now-closed theater, my nose bright red from the chill.

Fraser is the billionaire heir to a bloodless empire. Bellamy is the illegitimate daughter his stepmother abandoned. A deal bound them together. Six years of obsession, silence, and need. She thought she could walk away. He made sure she couldn't. But when enemies tear them apart - She loses her sight. He loses his memory. Their love is erased. Until his soul remembers what his mind forgot. And she dares to love him again - Even if she has to fight the world to do it.

The ticker tape on the news crawl was still burning behind my eyelids: *Foster Enterprises Declares Insolvency.* The words were a neon slash across my vision, turning the gray Manhattan skyline into a blur of vertigo and rain. My phone had been vibrating against my hip for an hour—lawyers, creditors, panic—but I didn't answer. I only had one destination. Zain. He was the only solid thing left in a world that had liquefied beneath my feet this morning. I bypassed the doorman at the Obsidian Tower, my breath hitching in my throat as the elevator surged toward the penthouse. I needed his voice. I needed him to tell me that money was just paper, that my father wasn't going to prison, that we would survive this. The penthouse door was unlatched. That should have been my first warning.

Chapter 1 For the ninety-ninth time, the critical condition notice for her husband landed in Shirley’s hands. She couldn’t stop herself—her palm cracked across Heather’s cheek. “Christopher and I are not divorced yet. Know your place.” Heather froze, then screamed, hysterical. “How dare you hit me! Christopher said I could do whatever I wanted!” “He said he’d love me enough to die for me, so let him die! Let’s see any of you try to save him!” Snatching up a fruit knife, she stabbed wildly toward Shirley. Not a soul moved to intervene. Because compared to the so-called “Mrs. Christopher,” Heather was the one Christopher truly cherished. The man paranoid enough to sleep with a blade under his pillow had allowed Heather to use him as a test subject—for candle burns, drowning games, plastic bag suffocation. The man who detested the color pink had let her cover his face in lipstick kisses and Hello Kitty stickers. So even as she slashed Shirley until she bled, no one dared lay a finger on her. “Heather!” Christopher’s voice cut through the chaos as a nurse wheeled him out. His face was pale. “Your face… what happened?” Tears pooled in Heather’s eyes. “I just wanted to see you die for me, but Shirley wouldn’t let me. She tried to kill me…” Christopher’s sharp gaze snapped to Shirley. “You laid a hand on her? Heather is like this because of you! You promised to take care of her for life!” Shirley bit her lip until she tasted copper. On her twentieth birthday, her foster father, Gabriel, had brought home Heather—his biological daughter, missing for fifteen years. Shirley had taken her abroad. In the moment it took to glance at a text, Heather vanished. They found her half a month later, but from then on, Heather grew stranger. She threw kittens off balconies. She locked classmates in bathrooms. Doctors diagnosed a severe empathy deficit, triggered by trauma. She couldn’t grasp the consequences of her actions. Consumed by guilt, Shirley brought her to the Christopher family, hoping their resources could help. And though Heather had rarely targeted others in recent years, she never spared Shirley. With Christopher’s indulgence… Shirley was just so tired. Her eyes reddened; the hand pressed to her wound trembled. “Since you’re fine, we’ll finalize the divorce tomorrow.” She turned to go, but Christopher’s voice halted her. “You hurt her and think you can walk away? What about your promise?” He signaled a bodyguard to restrain Shirley, then spoke gently to Heather. “Don’t be scared. I’ve got you.” Though Shirley’s injuries were far worse, Christopher acted as if he didn’t see them, drawing Heather close instead. “Anyone who bullies you will pay tenfold.” Shirley broke, her scream raw. “Christopher, *I* am your wife! You promised me once—you’d always be my shield, that you’d never let anyone hurt me!” He’d once crossed half the country to buy her a cup of bubble tea. During an earthquake, he’d shielded her with his body, breaking three ribs. Back then… she was everything to him… At her words, Christopher’s eyes glazed over for a fleeting second before turning to ice. “Those promises died the day you killed our child and my mother.” Now, all he felt was hate. Shirley’s sobs cut off, her face deathly pale. Restrained and helpless, she could only endure as slap after brutal slap rained down. *Smack! Smack! Smack!* … The assault only stopped when Heather’s arm grew tired. Shirley’s face was swollen, bruised. The moment the bodyguard released her, she crumpled. Heather blinked, feigning innocence. “Is it wrong for a little sister to hit her big sister?” Christopher took her reddened palm, his touch both doting and pained. “Your world doesn’t have right and wrong. Do as you please. I’ll handle the consequences.” “Even if I play with you until you die?” “Of course. How would you like to play tonight?” The sound of a messy, passionate kiss filled the corridor. Everyone else stared at their shoes. Shirley’s tightly controlled, ragged sobs finally cut through their heated breaths. Heather pulled up her fallen shoulder strap, whining sweetly, “Why is big sister crying so loudly?” The man’s voice was a contemptuous sneer. “She cries because she still has hope. She wants my comfort. True despair is silent. Like when I lost my mother and child—I couldn’t even shed a tear.” Arm around Heather, Christopher walked away. As he passed Shirley, his low voice seemed to rise from hell itself. “This is your deserved retribution. Divorce? Don’t even dream of it.” The words were a final dagger, plunging into her already shattered heart. Everyone in Rivermouth knew the truth. Those ninety-nine divorce threats were a pathetic joke, proof of how desperately Shirley loved him. The fact it never happened in ninety-nine attempts was Christopher’s punishment for her betrayal. She remained slumped on the cold floor for a long time. Finally, with trembling fingers, she dialed her biological father.

Three years ago, I sacrificed myself to donate my corneas to my blind lover, Elliot Moon. To spare him the guilt, I had my family tell him that I had abandoned him for a new life. But the credit for my sacrifice was stolen by another woman, Dolly. Convinced that I was still alive, Elliot became obsessed with hunting me down and dragging me back to donate my heart to cure Dolly’s heart disease. He broke both of my brother’s hands. He drove my mother to her death. But I was already dead, reduced to a ghost, unable to do a single thing. That was until his subordinate uncovered the truth: "Mr. Moon, Ms. Kayla died three years ago to save you."