Se connecterChapter 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 dealing with. Not the manageable sort of annoyance that came with forced engagements, an annoying father, or even Lauren’s occasional dramatics.No.This was the kind of exhaustion that seeped deep into your bones—the kind that came from being caught in a situation so absurd that your brain still hadn’t fully accepted that it was real.Because if someone had told me this morning that by nightfall I’d be driving home with my furious fiancée in the front seat and the woman who had just publicly claimed to be pregnant with my child in the backseat, I would have laughed them straight out of the room.And yet, here we were, the three of us trapped in this farce, and I could feel the walls closing in.
Chapter 7: This Chaos Reese Never in my life did I imagine I would end up in a situation like this. And that was saying something. I had been in my fair share of questionable situations before—club fights that nearly turned into fistfights, complicated sutuations that could have permanently ended my relationship with my brother, parties that spiraled wildly out of control. Chaos was practically a familiar acquaintance at this point.But this? No.Nothing in my long history of bad decisions had prepared me for being trapped in the same car with two women who currently wanted to destroy each other.Lauren and Elizabeth. At the same time.If someone had told me this morning that my day would end like this, I would have laughed in their face.Yet here we were.After the officers arrived and ordered us to disperse, there hadn’t really been a choice. The crowd had been growing, the videos were already certainly circulating, and the last thing any of us needed was to escalate things furth
Chapter 6: Your Companions Reese Whoever coined the phrase, ‘a sticky situation’, must have taken one look into my future and decided to immortalize this exact moment.Because there I was—standing in the middle of a growing crowd, phones pointed in my direction like I was the star of some public spectacle—while my real fiancée stood in front of me… and the woman beside me had just announced to the world that she was pregnant with my child.A child that did not exist.Jesus Christ.Lauren’s eyes burned into mine, wide with disbelief and fury.Elizabeth’s hand was still clamped around my arm like a lifeline. And people were filming. Of course they were.“I’m talking to you, Reese!” Lauren stamped her heel against the pavement hard enough that several people turned their phones toward her.“Who the hell is this girl?” she demanded. “And is she really pregnant with your baby? Answer me!”For a brief second, the only sound around us was the low murmur of the crowd and the sound of announ
Chapter 5: Who Are You? Lizzie Reese.He was standing right in front of me.For a moment, my brain simply refused to process it. The world had already been spinning wildly for the past ten minutes—my mother screaming, people gathering, the officers stepping in—but this? This felt unreal.How was this possible?Of all the places in the world where we could have crossed paths again, it had to be here. Right now. At the exact moment I needed an escape more desperately than I had ever needed anything in my life.Was this coincidence? Or was the universe finally throwing me a lifeline?“Who is this?” Mom demanded sharply.I registered that her fingers were still wrapped around my wrist, digging in like claws, but Reese gently removed them. The movement was smooth and effortless—like prying apart a child’s grip.“Lizzie,” she snapped, turning on me immediately. “Who is this man?”Reese released her wrist and slipped his hands casually into his pockets. “Does it matter?” he asked.The calm
Chapter 4: Lauren Reese“Where the hell are you, Reese? I’ve been waiting here forever!”Lauren’s voice cut through the phone like a siren, piercing my skull with that patented high-pitched urgency. I yanked the device from my ear, feeling my jaw tighten as my grip on the wheel locked into place. The highway ahead blurred with red brake lights and distant headlights as I tightened my grip on the steering wheel and exhaled slowly through my nose.“If you’d stop calling every three seconds,” I said deliberately, my tone calm though the tension in my chest simmered, “I might actually be able to focus on driving and get there in one piece.”But my words seemed to set her off. “We had an emergency landing in Chicago an hour ago, Reese! An hour ago! You were supposed to be there waiting when my plane landed! Why am I stranded here alone? Why would you leave me here?!” I inhaled slowly through my nose, letting the air fill my lungs as though it could stop me from losing it completely. “I
Chapter 3: You're Selling Me Lizzie “What?” The word came out as a breath, not a scream. Dad’s eyes were fixed on the floor. I looked from him to her, waiting for someone to laugh. To admit this was emotional theatrics taken too far. No one did. “You can’t be serious,” I whispered. “Oh, I’m very serious,” she replied. “Do you know how much Kenneth’s father has promised to invest in your father’s new business idea? Do you understand what will happen if they pull out now? Do you even care about us at all?!” The missing piece clicked into place. This wasn’t about love. It wasn’t even about status. It was debt. Dad’s small side business had been bleeding money since the layoff. When he said he’d finally found footing again, it had been with backing—from the Greenes. My stomach twisted. “You promised me,” I said to my father, voice cracking. “You promised you’d never use me as collateral.” He looked up then, eyes red-rimmed. “Lizzie, it’s not like that.” “Then what is it li







