Hate Me Like You Love Me (Serena and Caleb) novel Chapter 56

Serena’s POV

The people who love us best are often the ones we work hardest to deceive.

I’m hunched over a textbook I haven’t actually read, the words swimming meaninglessly across the page, when a hand closes around my arm and yanks me out of my chair.

“Mia, what…”

“Not here.” She steers me through the library stacks with the determination of someone who’s been planning this ambush for days. “We’re going somewhere private.”

I stumble after her, too startled to resist, as she guides me into an empty study room at the back of the building.

The door closes behind us with a decisive click, and Mia plants herself in front of it like a guard blocking the only exit.

“We’re not leaving until you tell me what’s going on.”

“Nothing’s going on.” The deflection comes automatically, worn smooth by weeks of practice. “I’m fine. Just stressed about exams.”

“Try again.”

“Seriously, Mia, everything’s under control.” I attempt a smile that probably looks more like a grimace. “How are your classes going? Did you ever hear back from that guy you matched with on—”

“Don’t.” Her voice cuts through my diversionary tactics with surgical precision. “Don’t try to change the subject. Don’t pretend I’m stupid enough to fall for it.”

She crosses her arms over her chest, her dark eyes sharp with the kind of concern that refuses to be dismissed.

Mia has known me since freshman orientation, when she found me crying in the bathroom after my first college panic attack and talked me through breathing exercises until I stopped hyperventilating.

She’s seen me at my lowest. She knows every tell I have.

“You want to know what I see when I look at you?”

She doesn’t wait for an answer.

“I see dark circles that three layers of concealer can’t hide anymore. I see cheekbones that didn’t used to be that sharp. I see someone who startles every single time her phone buzzes.”

“Mia…”

“And I see that ring.”

Her gaze drops to my left hand, to the diamond glittering under the fluorescent lights. ”

The one you twist every time someone mentions Lucas’s name. The one you wear like it’s a shackle instead of a promise.”

My fingers have found the ring without my permission, rotating it around my finger in the nervous habit I didn’t realize I’d developed.

“That’s not a girl in love.” Mia’s voice softens, but her stance doesn’t waver. “That’s a girl in trouble. And I’m not leaving this room until you tell me which kind.”

Tell her. Tell her everything. Let someone else carry part of this weight.

But I can’t. Telling her about Caleb would mean admitting things I’m not ready to say out loud, would mean dragging her into a scandal that could destroy both our families.

And Lucas’s leverage, the footage, real or imagined, would still exist whether Mia knows about it or not.

“Everything is fine.” The words taste like ash. “I’m just adjusting to being engaged. It’s a big change.”

“Serena.”

She says my name like a warning.

“I have sat across from you in every class we’ve shared for three years. I know when you’re happy, and I know when you’re lying. Right now, you’re doing one of those things, and it’s not the first one.”

My carefully constructed walls begin to crack.

I shake my head, trying to hold myself together, but the pressure that’s been building for weeks has finally found a fracture line. My eyes burn, my throat tightens, my hands won’t stop shaking.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify