All Chapters of The love we lied about : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

45 Chapters

Chapter Eleven: Gerald’s Wife

“Say it,” I said. “Say her name.”Cole sat back down on the edge of the bed, elbows on his knees, staring at the floor like it might give him permission to speak. “Evelyn Cross.”“Gerald’s wife.”“Gerald’s wife,” he repeated, quiet, like the words tasted bad in his mouth. “She wrote the article. I took the blame because she asked me to, and because I owed her, and because five years ago I still believed owing her meant something good.”“What does she have on you.”“That’s the part I’m still not telling you tonight.” He looked up, steady this time, no more flinching. “But I’ll tell you what I can. She’s been controlling more than just that article. She’s been controlling your career since before you ever signed with this label.”“That’s not possible. Gerald signed me.”“Gerald signs whatever Evelyn tells him to sign. He always has.” Cole rubbed a hand over his jaw, and something in his face went distant, remembering. “She was at your first showcase. The one when you were seventeen. I k

Last Updated : 2026-08-05

Chapter Twelve: The Photo

Neither of us slept. We sat up with the photo still glowing on my phone between us, passing theories back and forth that all led to the same uneasy place. “She wasn’t just watching me that night,” I said slowly. “She was watching you too.” Cole didn’t answer right away. He was staring at the photo again, at his own younger face, at Evelyn’s hand resting on his shoulder like she owned something in that frame that wasn’t hers. “I never thought about it that way,” he said. “I thought I was the one keeping tabs on her. Following the story. I never considered that she might have been keeping tabs on me the whole time too.” “Two obsessions instead of one.” “That’s a horrifying way to put it, but I don’t have a better one.” He rubbed a hand over his eyes, exhaustion catching up with him all at once. “I’ve spent five years thinking I was the one who got away clean, aside from the article. Turns out I might have just been someone she hadn’t gotten around to using yet.” “That’s not much b

Last Updated : 2026-08-08

Chapter Thirteen: The Journal

Lena’s apartment lighting was dull and she looked stressed by the time we got there, papers spread across her kitchen table, a leather bound journal sitting in the middle of it like something radioactive. “Don’t touch it yet,” she said, when I reached for it. “Read my sticky notes first. There’s a lot in here and most of it isn’t going to make sense out of order.” Cole stood close behind me, not touching, but near enough that I could feel the tension coming off him in waves as Lena flipped the journal open to the first marked page. “She’s been keeping records since before you signed with the label,” Lena said. “Every showcase you did as a teenager. Every review. There’s a whole section just tracking Cole’s career too, going back further than I expected.” “How much further,” Cole asked, voice tight. “Further than makes sense for someone who was just a source for one article.” Lena flipped ahead several pages, tapping one entry. “This is the part you need to see.” I leaned over th

Last Updated : 2026-08-09

Chapter Fourteen: The Loss

“Say that again,” I said. “Slower.” “The journal’s gone, Rhea. Someone got into my apartment last night without breaking anything. No forced entry. No alarm trip. It’s just gone.” Cole was already reaching for his jacket, phone still on speaker between us. “Lena, lock your door. Don’t let anyone in until we’ve talked this through.” “I’m not stupid, Cole, I’ve already called a locksmith.” Her voice was tight, controlled in the way people get when panic is a luxury they haven’t earned the time for yet. “There’s nothing more to find tonight. Whoever took it knew exactly what they were doing and didn’t leave anything behind to trace.” “So what do we do,” I asked. “Tonight? Nothing. There’s nothing to do tonight except make sure you’re both safe and get some sleep. I’ll keep digging on my end. Go home. Rest. I’ll call the second there’s something worth acting on.” “That’s it? We just wait?” “Unless you’ve got a better plan for finding a journal that vanished without a trace, yes. We

Last Updated : 2026-08-10

Chapter Fifteen: The Lesson

I found him already in the kitchen when I came out the next morning, two mugs of coffee poured, one set at my usual spot at the counter before I’d even said good morning.“You didn’t have to do that,” I said.“I know. I did it anyway.” He didn’t look up from his own mug, which told me he’d been up early, maybe not sleeping much better than I had. “Sleep okay?”“Not really.”“Me neither.”Neither of us elaborated on that, and I decided I preferred it that way, at least for now, at least before coffee. We ate breakfast standing at the counter, mostly quiet, the easy kind of quiet from the night before replaced with something more careful, like we’d both agreed without discussing it to step back from wherever that conversation had been heading.“You’re staring at your toast like it personally wronged you,” he said eventually.“I’m thinking.”“About?”“Nothing important.” It wasn’t entirely true, and from the look he gave me over the rim of his mug, he knew it wasn’t entirely true either,

Last Updated : 2026-08-11

Chapter Sixteen: The Walls Go Up

“Tell them we’re private people,” I typed back to Gerald’s assistant, thumb moving faster than I’d let myself think about the words. “No statement. Some things aren’t for the cameras.”Cole read it over my shoulder. “That’s a good line.”“It’s a true line.” I set the phone down and stepped further away from him than the size of my living room really required. “We should talk about tonight.”“What about it.”“It can’t happen again.” I crossed my arms, needing the barrier of them even though he hadn’t moved any closer. “The dancing. The hand at my waist lingering longer than the steps required. Any of it.”Something flickered across his face, there and gone too fast to name. “Okay.”“That’s it? Okay?”“What do you want me to say, Rhea?” He said it evenly, no heat in it, which somehow made it land harder than if he’d argued. “You set the rule. I’ll follow it.”“Good.”“Good.”We stood there a moment longer, the space between us feeling wider than the room actually was, and then I picked

Last Updated : 2026-08-12

Chapter Seventeen: The Gala

“Chin up. Hold the pose two more seconds.” The photographer waved us closer together, and Cole’s arm slid around my waist on cue, easy, practiced, exactly where it always landed for the cameras. “You clean up well,” he said, quiet, just for me, smiling wide enough for the lenses. “So do you. Shame it’s wasted on an audience that’s paying for it.” His jaw tightened, just slightly, but his smile didn’t waver, professional to the last second the shutter clicked. The photographer thanked us, moved on to the next arriving couple, and the second we were out of direct range, Cole’s arm dropped from my waist like it had never been there at all. “You couldn’t give me one night without a jab in it,” he said, low. “I gave you two years of my career being controlled by people who didn’t care what happened to me once they’d gotten what they wanted. Forgive me if I’m slow to trust a warm smile.” “That’s not fair, and you know it.” “Life isn’t fair. I thought you of all people would understan

Last Updated : 2026-08-13

Chapter Eighteen: The Walk

“Rhea.” He said my name like he was testing whether I’d actually answer this time. “You don’t have to explain anything tonight. I just need you to know I heard what you didn’t say.” “There’s nothing to hear. I don’t know what you think you figured out.” “Fine.” He didn’t push it further, which somehow felt worse than if he had. He just stood there beside me at the railing, close enough that I could feel the warmth coming off him in the cold air, patient in a way that made the silence between us feel loaded instead of empty. The terrace door opened behind us. Gerald’s assistant, clipboard in hand, apologetic smile already in place. “Sorry to interrupt. They need you both back inside for the closing photo. Big group shot, all the sponsors.” “We’ll be right there,” I said, grateful for the excuse to move, to put my public face back on and let the last few minutes disappear into the version of tonight everyone else was going to see in tomorrow’s paper. The closing photo took twenty

Last Updated : 2026-08-14

Chapter Nineteen: The Photo

He came back sometime after two. I heard the door, heard him moving quietly through the living room like he thought I might already be asleep, and I lay there in the dark pretending I was, because I didn’t know what I would have said to him if he’d knocked.By morning, neither of us brought it up. He was at the counter when I came out, coffee already made, same as every morning, except this time he didn’t look up when I walked in.“Morning,” I said.“Morning.”That was it. No mention of the walk, no mention of what he’d said in the living room the night before, both of us apparently agreeing without discussing it to pretend the whole conversation had happened to two different people.I should have felt relieved. Instead I felt something closer to disappointed, which annoyed me more than the silence itself did.“Did the walk help,” I asked, mostly to fill the silence, mostly because I wanted some sign of what last night had cost him.“Some. Cold air’s good for thinking.”“What did you

Last Updated : 2026-08-15

Chapter Twenty: What the Photo Knew

I found him in the living room that evening, papers spread across the coffee table, going through what looked like an early draft of something for his podcast pitch. He didn’t look up when I sat down across from him.“Can I show you something,” I said.“Depends what it is.”I turned my phone around, the gala photo still open from earlier, and set it on the table between us instead of handing it to him directly, needing the small distance the tabletop gave me.He looked at it a long moment. “I remember that exact second.”“So do I.” I pulled my knees up onto the couch, wrapping my arms around them. “I’ve been staring at it on and off all day. Trying to convince myself it doesn’t mean what I think it means.”“And?”“And I’m not very convincing, apparently.” I made myself keep going before I lost the nerve. “I’ve spent this whole week being cold to you in private because I was scared. Not because I don’t feel anything. Because I do, and I didn’t know what to do with that, so I decided th

Last Updated : 2026-08-16

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