THE BODYGUARD’S HIDDEN TRUTH のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 111 - チャプター 120

Ethan met me outside the chapel, his relief at seeing me unharmed quickly giving way to careful curiosity once he saw my expression. “That went differently than the last time,” he observed. “It did,” I said, and told him everything on the drive home — Colette’s exhaustion, her admission that she didn’t know how to want something different, the fragile, uncertain honesty of her final words.“Accountability,” Ethan repeated slowly, once I’d finished. “That’s a considerably harder thing to actually offer than sympathy. I wonder if she understood what you were really asking.” “I think she did,” I said. “I think that’s exactly why she needed time. Sympathy costs her nothing. Accountability means actually facing what she’s done, to Richard, to all of us, without the protection of distance or careful manipulation.”We brought the update to the war room that evening, Reyes listening carefully before voicing the practical concern beneath the emotional complexity. “If she’s genuinely considerin

The morning after Colette’s second letter arrived, life had begun to feel almost dangerously ordinary — breakfast chaos, garden hours, quiet evenings that no longer needed to be stolen so carefully from danger. It was into this fragile calm that Reyes brought news that reminded all of us how little of it we could ever fully trust. “Cross,” she said simply, setting a folded page on the war room table. “Another note. Different method this time — mailed, actually mailed, postmarked from three states away.” Ethan read it first, his jaw tightening as he passed it to me. I’ve been thinking about our conversation at the gate. I find I have not yet reached a conclusion, which is, for me, an unusual and somewhat uncomfortable state to remain in for this long. I understand Colette has begun speaking with you directly. I would ask that you consider carefully what her cooperation might actually cost her, given who taught her everything she knows about consequences. I am not threatening you. I a

We found the household gathered in the kitchen, Daniel once again attempting something ambitious with dinner, Marcus offering his usual dry commentary, Reyes reviewing something on her tablet despite her earlier promise to leave work at the door more often. It was Josephine who noticed first, her sharp eyes catching the wooden ring on my finger before I’d said a single word.“Oh,” she said softly, her hand flying to her mouth, tears already gathering. “Oh, Lillian.”The room went quiet, every head turning toward us. “What,” Marcus said, then followed Josephine’s gaze to my hand, understanding dawning across his face. “Wait. Is that—” “Ethan asked me to marry him,” I said, unable to keep the smile from breaking across my face despite months of learning to guard my emotions so carefully. “Not officially, not with the real ring yet. But he asked.”The kitchen erupted. Daniel nearly dropped whatever he’d been stirring, crossing the room to pull Ethan into a fierce hug. “Finally,” he said,

The morning after the garden proposal, I woke slowly, sunlight warm across the bed, Ethan’s steady breathing beside me, both rings catching the light on my hand when I lifted it to study them once more, still faintly disbelieving of the joy settled so completely into my chest.It was Reyes who brought us gently back to earth, finding us at breakfast with something careful in her expression despite her genuine happiness for us the night before. “I don’t want to interrupt this,” she said, sitting across from us. “But I think we need to check in on the Cross situation properly. It’s been a week since his last note, and I’d rather we stay ahead of whatever he’s planning than let the silence lull us into complacency.”“You’re right,” Ethan said, some of yesterday’s soft joy giving way to careful focus, though his hand remained steady around mine beneath the table. “What have you found?”“Nothing new from him directly,” Reyes said. “But I did some digging into his warning about others he mi

Two days passed without word from Colette, the silence heavier this time than any of her previous careful pauses. Nolan checked the old channel repeatedly, her own anxiety mounting visibly with each unanswered attempt.“This isn’t like her,” Nolan said, on the third morning, finding me in the kitchen. “Even during the worst of everything, she’s always responded eventually, even if only briefly.” “Maybe she’s simply being careful,” I said, though my own worry matched hers closely. “Moving somewhere secure enough that even the old channel isn’t safe to use yet.”Reyes had been working nonstop since the warning about Devereux, tracking every fragment of information she could find, though the security firm’s Eastern European origins made tracing anything considerably harder than the domestic networks we’d grown accustomed to navigating. “I’ve got almost nothing,” she admitted, exhaustion evident in her voice by the fourth day. “Whoever’s behind that firm, they’re considerably better at co