로그인Chapter 45: That's Not Love Reese My breath caught in my throat. The room suddenly felt smaller, the air thicker.“Judging by how frozen you look right now, I’m guessing he didn’t,” she said with a faint, tired smile. “Don’t look so shocked. I’ve gotten over it—for the most part. Roman got revenge for me.”“I’m glad he did,” I managed, my voice sounding foreign to my own ears—low, rough, edged with something protective and fierce. “I would have done it myself if he hadn’t.”She nodded once. “He killed the man who did it.” Another casual bombshell, delivered without drama, as if she were recounting a mundane errand. “I remember being so afraid and angry when I first found out what he’d done. I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. That he would go that far—that extreme—for something that happened long before he even knew me.”I simply watched her, letting her speak, afraid that if I interrupted, she might stop.“Then, after a while, all that fear and anger faded,” she continued sof
Chapter 44: Bad Things Reese I knocked once on the door and waited.“Who’s there?” Savannah’s voice came from inside, slightly muffled, softer than usual but still carrying that familiar steadiness that had always defined her—even when everything else about her seemed to be unraveling.“It’s me,” I replied. “Reese.”There was a pause. Not long. Probably less than a minute. But long enough for me to wonder if she’d change her mind.Then she spoke again. “Come in, please.”I reached for the handle, twisting it slowly before pushing the door open and stepping inside.The room was quiet.Not eerily so, not empty—but quiet in that intimate way, like the world outside had been deliberately shut out. The curtains were partially drawn, letting in just enough gray daylight to soften the edges of everything, the rain still tapping faintly against the window in a rhythm that felt oddly calming.Savannah sat in a wide armchair in the corner, angled slightly toward the window, her posture relax
Chapter 43: It's DeadLizzie Mom didn’t say anything at first. And that, more than anything, told me I had hit exactly where it hurt.Because my mother—my ever-composed, ever-calculating, always-ready-with-a-response mother—was not the kind of woman who went silent unless she had been cornered in a way she hadn’t prepared for. Words were her weapon, her shield, her entire strategy for navigating life, and watching her stand there now, lips slightly parted but no sound coming out, felt almost surreal.For a moment, the noise from downstairs—the soft murmur of condolences, the occasional clink of glassware, the low volume of polite grief—seemed to grow louder in the absence of her voice, filling the space between us in a way that only made the silence heavier. She hadn’t expected this. She hadn’t expected me to call her out like that.And now? Now she doesn't know how to recover.To make things worse for her—because apparently I wasn’t the only one done playing nice—Reese stepped in.
Chapter 42: Meant To Be Reese One Week Later They buried Flora on a rainy day. Of course they did. There was something almost cruelly poetic about it—the way the sky opened up without restraint, the rain falling in steady sheets that soaked into the earth as though the world itself was grieving alongside them. It wasn’t the kind of soft drizzle that came and went. No, this was heavier. Persistent. The kind that seeped into your clothes, your skin, your bones, until everything felt damp and cold and uncomfortable. I hated funerals. I always had. And it wasn’t just the black clothes or the hollow condolences or the way people suddenly acted like saints in the presence of death. It was deeper than that. More personal. More… suffocating. Because the last two times I had stood like this—under an umbrella, surrounded by people pretending to mourn while others actually broke apart—I had watched my mother and Dahlia being lowered into the ground. And something about tho
Chapter 41: Lucky Me Reese The next day carried the kind of tension that didn’t announce itself loudly, didn’t slam doors or raise voices, but instead crept into every corner of the house, settled into the walls and lingered in the silence between words. It was the kind of tension that made even the smallest sounds feel amplified—the faint tapping of keys, the quiet suckling noises from a baby’s pacifier—everything felt too loud against the backdrop of what hadn’t been said.No one brought up what happened the night before. No one even tried. Yet.And somehow, that made it worse.It was in the way Alyssa moved around the kitchen like she was careful not to disturb something fragile, in the way Lizzie spoke in softer tones than usual, her laughter quieter, restrained, like she was afraid it might crack something open again. Even Savannah… Savannah wasn’t really there. Not in the way she used to be. She moved through the house like a ghost, present but distant, her eyes duller, her
Chapter 40: He’ll Push BackLizzie “That went downhill pretty quickly,” I said at last, the words slipping out slower than I intended as I lowered myself onto the edge of the bed. My body felt heavier than it should have, like the tension downstairs had followed me up here and settled into my bones, refusing to let go. I dragged my palms over my thighs absentmindedly, staring at nothing in particular, still hearing the echoes of Savannah’s voice in my head. “I didn’t expect that from Sav. At least not like that.”Reese didn’t sit immediately. He lingered for a second near the door, like he was listening to what was still happening downstairs, to the muffled sobs, the low sound of Alyssa’s voice trying to soothe something that couldn’t really be soothed. Then he finally moved, exhaling quietly as he crossed the room and leaned back against the wall, arms folding loosely across his chest.“I did,” he said after a beat, his tone not harsh, not judgmental—just… certain. “Maybe not exa
Chapter 11: I Can Try Reese “You do realize we’re talking about an actual baby, right?” I said slowly. “Not a dog or a cat.”Lauren’s laugh bubbled out of her like I’d just made the cutest observation in the world. She leaned her head against my shoulder, silky hair spilling across my arm as if t
Chapter 8: Focus, Reese Reese By the time we pulled into the underground parking garage of our high-rise apartment building, the tension in the car had thickened to an almost unbearable density. I'd reached my absolute limit—and rightfully so. Not the usual kind of irritation I was used to deal
Chapter 22: Take That Back Lizzie I punched him in the nose. There wasn’t any dramatic buildup to it. No heroic speech, no warning, no moment where I stopped to consider consequences or social etiquette or whether assaulting the host at his party was a wise life decision. My body simply moved.
Chapter 20: Game On Lizzie I turned my head and stared out the window after that, wanting to see no more of that weirdness. Eventually the car slowed and pulled to a stop. We’d arrived. And the second I stepped out onto the pavement, I realized this party was not what I’d been expecting.Not eve







