All Chapters of The Man I Was Meant to Hate: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Liam's Point Of ViewIt is dripping and the rain is smacking my face in the manner of a wall as I haul Ava along that narrow wood trail. I got her hand full on, she gripped me so tight I half think I am choking her--it is only the way I feel. I can’t let go right now. We hear screeches of sirens behind us, and Noah is bleeding on the floor and the police are swarming on the cliff like a swarm of wolves. “Liam, stop.” The voice of Ava is ragged as she is talking with her mouth full of fear and anger. She scratches her feet in the mud yet nevertheless draws against my pull and demands answers rather than literally making us take a diversion. I look at her, and the rain falls on both the faces. “If I halt they’ll snatch you.” I attempt to speak in a low tone, as my nerves are so nervous. She gazes at me as though she is surveying the verisimilitude, and a sinister infatuation picks me in the breast. It is at this time that she used to believe that I was her protective place. Now she

Ava’s Point Of ViewSomething in me broke as soon as the message disappeared on my phone screen. I had no thoughts, no breaths, no thought that my hands were still trembling. I simply turned to Liam and uttered the two words I thought would shatter it all.“I’m going to my childhood home.”Liam’s face went still. Not angry. Not surprised. Just… afraid. He got between me and the trees, blocking the little road with them. “Ava, no. Absolutely not.”You have no right to say that, I hissed in pushing past him. He seized me by the arm, and did it kindly, though firmly, at the same time. “Ava, listen to me.”No, I said, my chest up too quickly. You put me out each time I ask. Whenever I go pushing you present me with half-truths, and warnings and later. Well, I’m done waiting.”“Ava—”Well, I said, breaking my voice, somebody will know.That hit him. His jaw clenched. His eyes went dark. The charge that existed between us was electric. He moved in, way too near, almost touching my back, agai

Liam’s POV:Noah never even got time to blink.I barreled at him.We just struck that wrecked couch at first, and the frame broke as the foam would have broken had it been foam underneath us--as who knew how much it would bend? There was a buzz round my ribs, but I did not mind. The one thing I could think of was, as it were, a fire in my skull: Keep him away from Ava.Noah turned round, endeavoured to raise himself, but he had nothing but panic that made him strong. He struck the wall, dust had burst out, a frame was broken, gray everywhere on the floor. “Liam—!” With a scream Ava screamed, and it sliced through the mess. I did not hear her, I had my fists on the face of Noah, jaw or cheek or collarbone, anywhere I could strike to keep him down. The window at the bottom of us screeched. Noah picked one of the shards, swung it at my arm, cut my sleeve. I kept going. I couldn’t stop. My fists trembled, it was not because I was angry, it was because I had buried a lot of thing

Ava's Point Of ViewWhen my knees fail, still my dad is talking in the room. The gun. The fury in his eyes. The manner in which he stared Liam as though Liam was the threat... not him... not Noah... not anybody. Everything collapses on me at the same time. The letter. Ethan’s warnings. The name of my mom in shaking ink. I fall on the dusty boards and put hands across my face and my body is shaking uncontrollably. Before I can prevent it tears stream through. It hurts so much, and the pressure on my chest is too great, I can hardly breathe. Liam swivels about and looks at me. “Ava—” Don’t, I gasp, and push back, his hand is going to my shoulder. “Just—don’t touch me.” His face folds with pain. “Ava, listen to me—” “No!” There is a strangled quality to my voice. “Everyone lied to me.” I see in between him, Noah, and my father, but my sight is blurred with the tears. “All of you. You kept me blind. You kept me stupid.” “Ava—” Liam tries again. But I’m past lis

Ava's Point Of View Still Liam is speaking, when the sentence Noah dares to pass falls upon my neck, like a blade that was meant to cut my throat. Ava, you did not even have a right to live that night, either. The air vanishes. My knees buckle. The world draws off me as it likes to see me fall. then whispers my own mother, and soft, and broken, deadly: It was not that you were in the car. My fall is so violent that Liam must hold me by the waist in order to support me. He embraces me with his arm and levels me as my legs become unresponsive. Everything inside me shakes. There are some moments when my heartbeat halts and then speeds up, then halts, and then tries to comprehend which betrayal should be responded to at first. I stare at my mother, wishing she would not look like that, and wishing she would look like she would not, and wishing that there was something--anything--that would humanize this. But she just stands there with her hands clasped to her as though she is s