All Chapters of I Hate How Much I Want You: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

Elias’s POVThe invitational was at Westbrook, a three-hour drive north.It was the one race of the season that mattered to everyone on our team. Four universities, one weekend, a trophy older than any of our parents, and a cash prize that could fund a department for a year. Coach Daniel had been preparing us for it since August. He pinned the schedule to the garage wall, color-coded and annotated in red, and stood in front of it on Thursday morning with his arms crossed like a general."Westbrook has brought their best," he said. "Tyler Brandt is back from his European season. He won three of five. His car is fast, his team is ruthless, and he'd sell his mother for a podium. I want you both focused."*Both.* My eyes went, against all discipline, to the far end of the garage.Adrian stood by the wall in his team jacket with his arms folded, staring at the schedule. He hadn't looked at me once since I walked in. In nine days I'd seen him only at a distance: across the paddock, down a h

Adrian’s pov“It said, 'Saturday night. Delta Sigma. Everything's in place.'""Delta Sigma." My voice came out hoarse. "That's the Westbrook after-party. It's at the fraternity house.""I know. I was invited too." Claire looked up. "I called Yelena, pretending I was just curious, and she said she was bringing a plus-one, and she laughed. Adrian, she laughed like she knew something I didn't.""What does she want?""I don't know. But your father paid her. I saw the envelope in the paddock." Her fingers twisted in her lap. "She's planning something, and he's part of it."I turned away and pressed my knuckles to the cool glass. Through the foggy pane I could see the dark shape of the lawn, the edge of the garden, the faint orange glow of the house. Everything inside me felt cold and hollow."He told me she'd already agreed to the deal two years ago," I said. "That he paid her to sleep with me. To break Elias's focus."I heard Claire's sharp intake of breath."He *what?*""He told me. In t

Elias’s POVWe fought our way through the crowd. A dozen drunk people blocked the staircase, shouting over each other, and I shoved through with my shoulder until a heavy hand clapped on my arm. It was Julian's security friend, a large guy in a black T-shirt who nodded once toward the second floor."Third door on the left," he said. "She went in about ninety seconds ago."I took the steps three at a time.The upstairs hall was dimmer, quieter, the music reduced to a muffled thud through the floor. I counted doors. One, two, three. The third was shut, a strip of light glowing under it. I put my hand on the knob and found it unlocked.I pushed it open.The room was small and tidy, a guest bedroom with a single lamp on the nightstand. Adrian lay half sprawled on the bed with his jacket off, his eyes unfocused and his head lolling against the pillows. One shoe was gone. His breath came in slow, heavy pulls.Yelena was kneeling over him with one hand on his chest and the other fumbling wit

Adrian’s POVA noise came out of my throat that was half sob, half laugh. I pulled Elias across the console and kissed him right there in the rain, on a gray curb in front of a closed laundromat, his face wet and salty and perfect between my hands.He kissed me back like he was drowning.When we finally broke apart, foreheads pressed together, he whispered, "Whatever happens in there, we do it together.""Together," I said.The meeting room at the garage was a glass-walled box above the pit lane, and every seat in it was taken.Our team owner, Margaret Holloway, sat at the head of the table. She was sixty, silver-haired, and sharp as a tack, a woman who'd built the university program from a single borrowed trailer. To her left sat two men in expensive suits, the heads of our main sponsors. To her right sat Coach Daniel, rumpled and gray-faced, and at the far end of the table, with his fingers steepled and his eyes calm, sat my father.The room went silent when we walked in."Sit," Mrs

Elias’s POVThe woman who stood in the doorway was tall and elegant, in a camel coat and a silk scarf, with sleek blond hair going gray at the temples and Adrian's exact blue eyes. She held a leather handbag in both hands and looked, for the first time in my experience of the Vale family, nervous."Mom?" Adrian said, half rising. "What are you doing here?""I followed your car." Eleanor Vale glanced around the room, then at my mother. "I'm sorry to intrude. Mrs. Kane, I'm Adrian's mother. I wanted to speak with you privately, but this may be better."My mother adjusted her scarf. "Please come in."Eleanor crossed the room. Up close she smelled of lilies and expensive soap, and she walked like a woman who had spent her entire life being careful about taking up space. She stopped beside the bed and took a deep breath."My husband is responsible for your treatment being cancelled," she said.Nobody breathed."I didn't know until this morning. I've spent nineteen years turning a blind eye