Hate Me Like You Love Me (Serena and Caleb) novel Chapter 59

Serena’s POV

Secrets are heaviest right before you finally set them down.

I wait on the front porch with my arms wrapped around myself against the cold, watching the empty street like it might swallow me if I look away.

The neighborhood is quiet at this hour—porch lights glowing in distant windows, bare trees swaying in the winter wind, nothing but silence and the pounding of my own heart to keep me company.

Headlights finally cut through the darkness.

Caleb’s bike rumbles into the driveway, the engine’s growl familiar and foreign all at once.

When he dismounts, I see it immediately—his limp is worse than before, each step carrying a stiffness he’s trying desperately to hide.

He pulls off his helmet and runs a hand through his dark hair, and even from this distance I can see the exhaustion etched into his features.

He approaches the porch slowly, and the smell of exhaust and adrenaline reaches me before he does.

The bulge in his jacket pocket tells me exactly where he’s been, what risks he’s been taking while I’ve been pushing him away.

“You texted.” His voice is cautious, guarded. “I’m here.”

I want to scream at him. Want to demand why he keeps risking his life, why he can’t just stop, why he makes it so impossibly hard to protect him from himself. The anger builds in my chest, familiar and sharp.

But first, I need to come clean.

“Lucas knows.”

The words tumble out before I can arrange them into something coherent.

“About us. About what happened on the couch that night. He came to the house when you didn’t answer the door, and he walked around to the window, and he saw…”

“Slow down.” Caleb climbs the porch steps and stops in front of me, his blue eyes searching my face. “Start from the beginning.”

So I do.

Everything spills out in a rush I can’t control—the restaurant, Lucas’s calm delivery of his threats, the footage he claims to have recorded through the living room curtains.

I tell Caleb about the terms of the blackmail, the engagement I agreed to under duress, the silence I’ve been maintaining to protect us both.

“That’s why I put the ring on.”

My voice cracks on the admission.

“That’s why I pulled away, why I’ve been cold and distant and cruel. I wasn’t choosing him over you. I was trying to keep him from destroying everything.”

Caleb listens without interrupting. When I finish, bracing myself for the explosion I’m certain is coming, it doesn’t arrive.

His fury is cold and quiet instead—a controlled burn that radiates from him in waves I can almost feel against my skin. His jaw tightens. His hands curl into fists at his sides. But his voice stays level when he finally speaks.

“I’m going to kill him.”

“Caleb…”

“I mean it.” The words come out low, dangerous. “He threatened you. He’s been holding this over your head for weeks while I watched you disappear inside yourself, and I couldn’t figure out why.”

“Violence won’t fix this.” I reach for his arm, my fingers closing around the leather of his jacket. “It will only make things worse.”

“Then what do you suggest?” The frustration bleeds through his controlled exterior. “We just let him win? Let him keep you trapped in an engagement you never wanted?”

“No.” I take a breath, steadying myself. “We fight back. But we do it smart.”

“You finished it?”

“Shane handed me the final payment an hour ago.” A ghost of a smile crosses his face. “Told me not to come back. One chain is broken.”

“And now we break the next.”

“Together.”

He turns to look at me, and something in his expression makes my breath catch.

“I know you think this ends with us walking away from each other. Maybe you’re right. But I need you to understand something first.”

“What?”

He reaches over and takes my hand in his. His fingers are cold from the night air, calloused from the handlebars, steady in a way that makes my heart ache.

“I’d rather lose everything than watch you belong to him.”

The confession hangs between us, raw and unguarded. I should pull away. Should remind him that words like that only make this harder, only deepen wounds that need to heal.

Instead, I let his hand warm mine. Let the silence stretch between us. Let the stars blur overhead as the night deepens around two people who have no right to want each other this much.

For the first time, we make a plan instead of an ultimatum.

And for the first time, I let myself believe we might actually win.