“I’ve watched you since you met Moore,” my father continued, his voice sharp now. “The way you row differently when he’s on the water. It’s not good.”
“I don’t—“
“Don’t lie to me, Alex.” His tone cut through my protest. “And I needed it to end. One way or another. Either you beat him decisively enough to finally let it go, or he destroyed you so badly you’d have no choice but to walk away.”
I stared at him, my throat tight. “You wanted this. You wanted him to destroy me?”
“I wanted the connection severed,” he corrected me. “It didn’t matter how. You can’t row like that. You can’t win like that. You can’t build a career fixated on someone else like that.”
“But he beat me by a full length,” I said, my voice cracking. “Everyone saw it. The scouts, the coaches—“
“And now you have two choices. Let this define you—let Moore ruin your season, your career, everything we’ve built. Or let it burn away whatever was distracting you.”
“I don’t know—“
“You will.” Not a suggestion. A command. “Whatever you feel towards Moore—whatever hold it has on you—it’s finished. He made sure of that today.”
I thought about Liam’s face at the finish line. The cruelty in his smirk.
Maybe my father was right. Maybe it was broken beyond repair.
As we continued to walk, the sound of gravel crunched under our feet. It was loud in my ears.
The moment of realization was surreal. He had set this whole thing up. An entire scrimmage between two D1 schools just to teach me a lesson. Whether he knew all the details about me and Liam... I didn’t know.
My father’s power and commitment to controlling my life was overwhelming.
And I didn’t know if he thought this was how to show love... but to me it was the cruelest thing he’d ever done.
Chapter 5: Liam
The night of the race, Emily and I sat in the back of Noah’s old green Subaru waiting at a red light.
“I’m just saying,” Noah said from the driver’s seat, glancing at us in the rearview mirror, “I don’t mind playing third wheel chauffeur but don’t start making out back there.”
“We’re not making out,” Emily said from beside me, laughing.
“Yet,” I added, grinning at her.
She swatted my arm, but she was smiling. Then she leaned in and kissed me—soft and sweet, tasting like the cherry lip gloss she always wore.
I kissed her back, my hand finding the curve of her waist, pulling her a little closer in the backseat.
“You two are disgusting,” Noah said, as he turned onto Greek Row, the streets already lined with cars. “Also, I’m charging you gas money.”
I pulled away from Emily and laughed—glad to get a rise out of Noah.
“Put it on your dad’s card,” I said.
“You volunteered to DD,” Emily pointed out.
“Yeah, because someone”—Noah shot me a look in the rearview mirror—“should avoid getting arrested for public intoxication the weekend you destroyed Kingswell.”
A memory from a frat party last year flashed in my mind. I smirked. “That was one time.”
“One time too many.”
Emily looked between us. “Wait, what? When did you almost get arrested?”
