Page 122 of Hate To Love You

“You will always be my greatest failure.”

What kind of a father says that to their own son? One that literally could not care about anyone but himself.

“You good?” Pat asks without taking his eyes off the road. I’ve had a while to cool down, but every time those words replay in my head, I get pissed off all over again.

I nod. “I’m fine,” I lie.

“Bullshit,” Holland calls from the backseat. “You almost beat your dad to death, Steele. You’re not fine,” he says.

My jaw tenses and I grind my teeth. “Drop it, Monroe.”

“Why can’t you just be honest and tell us what’s going on in your head?”

“Fuck off,” I seethe. I’m not doing this right now.

“Does this have to do with Gwen at all?” Holland inquires, and my fucking heart starts to beat rapidly again.

“What’s going on with Gwen?” Pat asks, glancing over at me.

“She left him. Thinks he cheated on her the night before the end of semester party,” Mason says. I never got around to telling Pat about what happened that night. The only reason Holland found out was because he saw me drunk and bloody after I beat up Davis. And the only reason Mason knows is because I have him keeping an eye on her.

“That’s impossible. He was with me the night before the party. We went to Hillview for a meeting. We were there until after one,” Pat tells him. “You didn’t tell her?”

I glare at him. “I tried. She blocked my number and told me not to contact her again,” I explain. Don’t you think that would have been the first thing I tried to do?

Pat scoffs. “Since when do you take orders from a woman?”

Sighing, I stare out the window, watching the trees fly by and ignoring Pat’s question.

“Shit,” Holland murmurs.

“What?” Mason asks, looking up from his phone.

“He loves her,” Holland explains, chuckling to himself.

Mason lets out a laugh. “Yeah, right. Steele in love? No way.”

I can feel Pat’s eyes burn into me as we pull into the driveway at the Elite Mansion. My friends know I’ve been notorious for sleeping around and never having any serious relationships with women. But Gwen is different.

Turning to look at Pat, he searches my face before a small smirk plays on his lips.

“I don’t believe it,” he says. “Our boy, fuckboy extraordinaire, has fallen in love,” he teases. I punch him in the arm, and he grunts.

“No fucking way,” Mason sits back in his seat and laughs.

“Fuck. Okay, yes. I love her. I’m in love with her, and she wants nothing to do with me. But I have a plan, I just need classes to start back up.”

The guys look at me with curiosity, waiting for me to explain further.

This plan has to work. She’s going to be mine, but I need her to want to be mine. I won’t put her through what my mother’s gone through. My mother didn’t want to marry my father and look where that got her.

No, Gwen needs to want to be with me. And I’m going to do everything in my power to make that happen.

Chapter 53

Guinevere

My mom cries as she hugs me. I squeeze her back, trying not to laugh at the fact that she cries every single time I go back to campus as if I won’t be back.

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