Opening
Secrets detonate, love surfaces, and a family finally looks its grief in the eye. These chapters push the fake relationship past its breaking point as danger escalates, the past refuses to stay buried, and a final, unguarded confession turns performance into truth.
What Happens
Chapter 21: I’m the Monster
When Hannah Brooks wakes to Jack Stapleton thrashing in a nightmare, she holds him until he calms. She coaxes him to describe the dream and suggests rewriting its ending—a therapy technique. Jack resists and finally admits, “In my nightmare, I’m the monster,” a confession that breaks his silence.
He tells her the whole story: a new Ferrari, black ice on a bridge, the guardrail giving way, and a plunge into a freezing river. In the dream, he drowns trying to save Drew Stapleton. The worst part, he says, is that aside from the drowning, the dream matches reality. The public narrative after the crash is a lie, and the guilt poisons his relationship with his brother, Hank Stapleton. Jack frames his charity work as penance, a way to justify his life when Drew lost his. As Hannah tries to leave, he pulls her close and asks her to stay, a moment of raw Love and Vulnerability that fuses their connection beyond the job.
Chapter 22: Threat Level Tangerine
Hannah wakes in Jack’s arms to frantic texts from her boss, Glenn Schultz. Overnight, the Corgi Lady stalker posts Jack’s Houston rental address, a paparazzi shot of Hannah and Jack “kissing” at the hospital explodes online, and a graphic death threat targets Hannah. The photo—actually a security maneuver—turns the tension between seeming and being into crisis, underscoring Appearance vs. Reality.
At headquarters, the mood is triage. Glenn elevates the threat: Jack is “orange,” Hannah “red.” Because she’s now a direct target, she’s pulled from the assignment immediately. The plan: tell the Stapletons the truth, extract Hannah, and assign Robby as Jack’s new lead. Glenn talks logistics and career prospects, focusing on Protection and Security while Hannah absorbs the personal cost—her sudden exile from the ranch and from Jack.
Chapter 23: Let’s Make It a Good One
Jack drives Hannah to the river for a last day that feels like a countdown. She tells him she leaves that night and they’ll never see each other again once the job ends. Jack answers, “Then let’s make it a good one.”
Perched on a washed-up log, they talk craft: how Jack cries on camera, how “not blinking” can cheat tears. A playful staring contest gives way to truth when Jack admits his famous chemistry with co-star Katie Palmer is purely staged—“screen kissing” versus “real kissing.” He draws a bright line between performance and feeling, and their banter hums with the knowledge that their supposed act has become something real. Before they leave, he promises, about ruining her favorite movie kiss, “Maybe someday I’ll make it up to you.”
Chapter 24: I Wasn’t Driving
At their final dinner, Hannah insists they tell Jack’s parents the truth about the fake relationship. Connie Stapleton misreads it as an engagement and refuses to believe the romance is staged because they’re “clearly in love.” When the stalker threat comes up, Hank explodes, blaming Jack for endangering the family and, finally, for Drew’s death.
Jack snaps. He smashes his plate and shouts, “I wasn’t driving!” He reveals that Drew had been drinking and was behind the wheel, extracting a promise from Jack never to tell their parents or Hank. Jack has carried the blame for years to protect Drew’s memory. The revelation drains Hank’s rage; he embraces Jack, and the family folds into a group hug, beginning the work of Grief, Family, and Healing. Later, Connie and Hannah share a quiet exchange in which Hannah admits the Stapletons feel like the family she’s always wanted.
Chapter 25: I Am Not Acting
Before dawn, Amadi arrives to drive Hannah back to Houston. With Jack and Hank still outside, Hannah packs fast and leaves without a goodbye, following protocol and fighting tears. Then the car stops—Jack sprints down the gravel road toward her.
They face each other one last time. Jack apologizes for the danger; Hannah tries to steady him about his family. She knows this is her chance to speak, but habit and fear harden her. She offers a professional handshake—“it was really great working for you”—a retreat that crystallizes her struggle with Facing Your Fears. Jack accepts the performance, then calls her back.
“I need you to know something,” he says, his voice serious. “I will really miss you. And I am not acting.”
The truth lands like a promise: whatever comes next, his feelings are real.
Character Development
With danger closing in, façades fall. Vulnerability—once the liability—becomes the engine of change.
- Hannah Brooks: Her professional walls crumble as she comforts Jack, loses the assignment, and admits to Connie how much the family means to her. Yet she still flinches from emotional risk, defaulting to professionalism when it matters most.
- Jack Stapleton: He opens the locked room of his grief, tells the truth about Drew, reconciles with Hank, and speaks plainly to Hannah. His penance shifts into healing.
- Hank Stapleton: He moves from fury and blame to understanding and embrace, reorienting the family around truth rather than rumor.
- The Stapleton Family: Once stalled in unresolved grief, they start mourning honestly and move toward connection.
Themes & Symbols
These chapters braid private intimacy with public scrutiny. The family’s unspoken sorrow finally surfaces, and truth—painful but clarifying—replaces myth.
- Grief, Family, and Healing: Jack’s hidden sacrifice has warped the entire household; confessing the truth reorders their relationships. The family’s collective embrace shows grief becoming communal instead of isolating.
- Appearance vs. Reality: A “kiss” photo turns protection into scandal. Jack’s celebrity persona masks guilt and self-loathing. Their fake relationship evolves into the most honest thing in the book.
- Love and Vulnerability: Comfort in the night, a plea to stay, a run down a gravel road—love grows in the spaces where they risk being seen.
- Protection and Security: Protocol saves lives but can also sever bonds. Glenn’s decision safeguards the principals while erasing the intimacy that sparked real change.
- Facing Your Fears: Jack confronts the past; Hannah can’t yet confront her heart. The narrative stakes shift from surviving danger to daring emotional exposure.
Symbol: The river embodies both trauma and renewal—the crash’s icy aftermath and the place where Jack and Hannah speak most honestly. It carries memory and the possibility of beginning again.
Key Quotes
“In my nightmare, I’m the monster.”
Jack names his self-blame, revealing how grief has recast him as the villain of his own story. The line reframes his charity work and distance as penance rather than arrogance.
“Because—except for the part where it’s me drowning—that’s pretty much the way it happened.”
Truth pierces dream logic. The nightmare isn’t distortion; it’s memory with the roles swapped to punish himself, showing how trauma revises reality to fit guilt.
“I wasn’t driving!”
The shattering moment. Jack breaks the family’s long silence, exposing the cost of his promise to Drew. The confession resets the family dynamic and releases years of misplaced rage.
“I will really miss you. And I am not acting.”
Jack flips their shared language of performance into a declaration. In four words—“I am not acting”—he ends the debate about what’s real.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
This sequence delivers the novel’s emotional apex: the past is finally told straight, the family begins to heal, and the fake-dating pretense collapses under the weight of real feeling. By removing Hannah from the assignment, the story strips away professional cover and forces both leads to confront what they want without a script.
Jack’s confession reorients every prior conflict, while his last words to Hannah change the central question from whether their feelings are real to whether they can be brave enough to claim them.