All Chapters of From Lies To Loyalty : Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

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 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 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 47: You're… RedReese“No, Reese! Don’t pull it too hard!” Savannah laughed, half-screaming as she watched me struggle. “Gently. Just pull them apart gently, or you’re going to rip the whole thing off. Again.” I let out a long, dramatic huff—the millionth one of the day. This had officially become the worst idea I’d ever had out of the so-called “goodness of my heart.”It had all started innocently enough. Savannah had been baking cupcakes nonstop since morning with Lizzie, filling the entire house with the warm, sweet scent of vanilla and chocolate. Miles had decided that was the perfect time to ruin his diaper in spectacular fashion. Being the helpful, goody-two-shoes uncle that I apparently was, I’d volunteered to handle bath time and a fresh diaper change.Big mistake.Changing a squirming, happy, extremely energetic baby turned out to be significantly harder than defusing a bomb. At least bombs didn’t kick their legs like they were trying to win an Olympic gold medal in

Chapter 49: No Real Risk Lizzie The moment Roman said those words, it felt like the entire world didn’t just slow down—it stilled in a way that was unnatural, almost suffocating. As though something unseen had reached into the fabric of reality itself and pressed pause, holding everything in place just long enough for the weight of what he’d said to settle heavily on my chest. The room didn’t shift, the soft lullaby playing from the small device on the bedside table didn’t falter, Andrea didn’t stop suckling gently from the bottle in his arms, and yet none of it seemed real anymore because all I could hear was the echo of his voice and the certainty behind it, the kind that left no room for denial or deflection, the kind that made my stomach twist painfully.I shrank back, heart hammering against my ribs as Roman’s intense gaze pinned me in place. He didn’t look angry—just watchful, almost gentle. Still cradling Andrea securely against his chest with one arm, he reached out slowly