Hate Me Like You Love Me (Serena and Caleb) novel Chapter 55

The worst lies are the ones people tell when they’re trying to protect you from the truth.

The Bennetts leave in a flurry of congratulations and promises to call tomorrow about venues.

Our parents retreat upstairs with champagne-warm smiles and talk of how wonderful this evening has been, how perfect everything is turning out, how blessed they are to watch their children find happiness.

I wait until the master bedroom door closes before I move.

Serena is in the hallway near her room, her hand already reaching for the doorknob, clearly trying to escape before I can corner her. She’s not fast enough.

“We need to talk.” I step into her path, blocking her retreat. “Now.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.” She won’t look at me. Her gaze stays fixed on some point over my shoulder, her body angled toward escape. “I’m tired, Caleb. It’s been a long night.”

“You just agreed to marry him.”

“Yes.” The word comes out flat, emotionless. “I did.”

“Look at me.” She doesn’t. “Serena, look at me.”

Her eyes finally lift to mine, and what I see there makes my chest constrict.

There’s nothing behind them—no fire, no defiance, no spark of the woman who argued with me in this same hallway a week ago. Just emptiness wearing her face.

“What happened?” I keep my voice low, conscious of our parents one floor above us. “Between the clearing and tonight—what changed?”

“I’ve been thinking clearly.” The words sound rehearsed, mechanical. “Really thinking, for the first time in months. And you were right all along.”

“Right about what?”

“This.” She gestures between us, the movement jerky. “Us. Whatever we thought we were building—it was always a dead end. We’re stepsiblings. It’s wrong. It was always going to end this way.”

She’s parroting my own words back at me. Every fear I’ve ever voiced, every reason I’ve given for why we shouldn’t work.

“That doesn’t sound like you are finding clarity.” I step closer, and she takes an involuntary step back. “That sounds like someone gave you a script.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“What did Lucas say to you?” The question comes out sharp, urgent. “Did he threaten you? Does he have something on you?”

“Lucas didn’t do anything.” Her voice stays perfectly level, but I catch the slight tremor beneath it. “He proposed. I said yes. That’s all there is to it.”

“Bullshit.”

“It’s the truth.”

“It’s a lie, and you’re terrible at telling them.”

I close the distance between us again, refusing to let her retreat further.

“I know you, Serena. I know what you look like when you’re happy, and tonight you looked like someone walking to her own funeral.”

“Maybe you don’t know me as well as you think you do.”

“Then prove it.”

Desperation claws at my chest, making my voice rough.

“If everything you’re saying is real, if you actually want to marry him, if you actually believe we’re a mistake, then say it while looking me in the eye. Push me away for real, once and for all.”

She opens her mouth, but no words come out.

“You can’t.” I reach for her, my hands cupping her face before she can flinch away. “Because it’s not true. None of this is true.”

My thumbs brush across her cheekbones, feeling the softness of her skin, the tension in her jaw. Her grey-green eyes are wide, startled, wet with something she’s fighting desperately not to let fall.

“Talk to me.” I drop my voice to barely above a whisper. “Please. Tell me what he did. Tell me what he’s holding over you. Trust me the way you used to.”

“Caleb…”

She’s lying. Everything she said was a lie.

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