From Best Friend To Fiancé (Savannah and Roman) novel Chapter 438

Chapter 438

Chapter 248: All For A Man

Savannah

Was I surprised? Truly–genuinely–was I shocked that Penelope Valentine, a woman who had never bothered to hide her distaste for me, would stoop slow as to spread malicious rumors about me behind my back?

No. Absolutely fucking not.

Penelope hated me because Roman loved me. And I wasn’t naïve or arrogant enough to pretend otherwise. I had seen it in the way she acted in his office that day. The way she made sure to insert herself in his life. The way she rubbed it in my face that she knew him and his family better than I did.

So no–her cruelty didn’t shock me. What did surprise me was the effort.

That she had found the time, between her polished courtroom appearances and her meticulously curated career as a lawyer, to actively destroy my reputation. That she had made it her personal mission to ensure Roman’s siblings saw me as a villain before ever speaking to me.

That took dedication. Obsession. And something deeply, disturbingly wrong.

How broken did you have to be to take it upon yourself to ruin someone simply because the man you wanted didn’t want you back?

All for a man.

And not just any man–but one who had never loved her. Never chosen her. Never looked at her the way he looked at me.

The thought made bile rise in my throat.

Penelope behaved as though Roman belonged to her–as though he were property she had misplaced rather than a man with his own heart, his own will. And the most grotesque part of it all was that she wasn’t even his lover.

She was just his lawyer. His friend.

Thinking about it made my stomach churn. But beneath the disgust, something else stirred–something colder and sharper. And that was awareness.

Penelope wasn’t just bitter. She was dangerous.

And as my hand instinctively drifted toward my stomach, terror rooted itself deep inside me. If she was capable of poisoning an entire family against me with lies, then there was no telling how far she would go.

Not when it came to me. Not when it came to my baby.

I drew in a shaky breath and forced my feet to move as Reese held open the door to Roman’s room.

The nurse present there glanced up, offered a gentle smile filled with pity, and quietly excused herself, granting us privacy.

The door clicked shut behind her.

For a brief, fragile moment, hope bloomed in my chest.

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08:34 Mon, Jan 12

Chapter 438

Maybe just maybe I’d walk in and find Roman sitting up in bed. Maybe he’d be arguing with the nurse, cursing the machines, flashing that smaile that always made my knees weak.

I would’ve taken anything. Talking. Laughing, Shouting.

Anything but this.

But life wasn’t a movie. Wishes didn’t materialize just because your heart was break

badly enough.

Roman was still there. Still unmoving. Still suspended in that cruel space between life and death.

a rhythm I hated but had already memorized. He was hooked up The machines hummed and beeped softly around him, their sounds weaving together to more tubes than I wanted to count, wires tracing over his chest like some grotesque form of art.

He had been shot twice. And yet, somehow, he was still alive. Still fighting.

He’d survived a bullet to the chest–so I clung to that fact like a lifeline. As long as he was breathing, there

endure anything.

Even this. Even the crushing guilt that sat on my chest like a weight I could never lift.

was hope. As long as there was hope, I would

My feet felt heavy as I moved closer, each step deliberate, as though I were afraid the floor might give way beneath me if I rushed.

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