All Chapters of From Lies To Loyalty : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

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.One second Tatum’s hand was lunging toward me, fingers outstretched like he thought grabbing me was the most natural thing in the world.The next second my fist slammed into his face.The crack echoed so sharply that for a split second I thought something in my own hand had broken. The impact shot straight up my arm, rattling my bones, but it was nothing compared to the look on Tatum’s face as his head snapped backward.For a moment the entire room was left rooted to a spot in shock. Then the blood started pouring.It came out of his nose in a shocking, messy rush, dark red against his pale skin as he staggered backward like someone had shoved him off balance. His hand flew to his face, pani

Chapter 24: My Favorite Lauren Before I could answer she reached up and caught my wrist. The movement was quick and efficient. She twisted just enough to force my grip to loosen, sending a sharp line of pain through my forearms. I gasped and stumbled backward as my hands fell away from her. Elizabeth stepped back, rubbing the red marks forming on her as though she’d merely brushed against a thorny branch instead of another person.“Touch me again,” she said quietly, leaning close enough that only a few people could hear, “and next time it won’t be your brother’s nose that needs fixing.”The threat landed.I glanced around at the watching faces, calculating the situation, already recognizing that the moment had slipped out of my control. Elizabeth seemed to understand that too. She turned toward the crowd as if nothing unusual had happened and lifted her voice casually.“Hey,” she said, “who turned off the music?”A few seconds later the speakers roared back to life as someone adju

Chapter 26: I Know You Lizzie By the time I stepped out of the party, the realization hit me. I didn’t have Reese’s number. And worse—much worse—I barely knew where the hell I was.I stopped on the sidewalk outside the house, the distant thump of music and drunken laughter leaking through the walls behind me, and let out a long, tired breath.“Shit,” I muttered under it.How had I forgotten that?It seemed so stupid now. So obvious. The kind of thing normal people did automatically—exchange numbers, make sure they could reach each other later. Yet somehow, in the chaos of the whole day, in the swirl of Lauren and Reese and that whole circus inside the house, it had slipped completely through my mind.My brain replayed the last time I’d seen him. The way he’d looked at me. The things he’d said. The way he'd touched me. And somehow, between all that tension, all that charged silence, I’d walked away without the one simple thing that would make contacting him easy.Idiot.Still… At l

Chapter 28: The Man On DutyReese “Reese, listen.” Savannah’s voice came through the speaker softer than usual, cautious in a way that immediately put me on edge. I could almost picture the expression on her face—the careful tilt of her head, the slight crease between her brows whenever she was trying to say something delicate without stepping on a landmine. “I… don’t really know how things are between you two right now. Actually—” she corrected herself quickly, “—you three. Including Lauren.” The addition came in a rush, like she realized too late she might’ve offended someone. “But one thing I want you to realize is that Lizzie is—”“Not a child.” I cut in immediately, the words sharper than I intended, though the irritation had been simmering under my skin ever since the call started. “She’s not a child, Savannah. You both keep talking about her like she’s some naive teenager who wandered into something she doesn’t understand. She’s a grown woman. An adult. Just like the rest of

Chapter 30: A Family Thing Reese By the time I reached the house where the party was being held, the knot in my stomach had twisted itself into something close to nausea.The place was already loud before I even stepped out of the car.Music thumped through the walls hard enough to make the ground vibrate. Colored lights flickered everywhere, and the front yard was cluttered with cars parked in every direction like someone had dumped them there without any intention of ever leaving again—some parked crooked, others abandoned half on the curb. I stared at the house in disbelief.What the hell was Lauren thinking? I thought this was supposed to be some kind of welcome-home party for Tatum.A “family” thing. That was the word she used.But the scene unfolding in front of me looked less like a celebration and more like the aftermath of a drunken festival gone wrong. And she had invited Lizzie to this.My jaw tightened.If anything had gone wrong—if Elizabeth had been dragged into somet