Page 1 of Built to Hate You

Chapter One

Mia

I’m driving home from a meeting with one of my freelance clients when my phone rings in the passenger seat. When I see that it’s my mom calling, I answer it and immediately put her on speaker. It’s been over a week since I’ve talked to her, and I’ve missed hearing her voice. She and my dad live over an hour away and I don’t get to see them as much as I’d like.

“Hey Mom,” I say. “How’s it going?”

“It sounds like you’re driving, Mia,” she says. “Should I call another time?”

“I am. But it’s fine. I promise I’ll be careful.” I pause. “Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s great,” says my mom. “Just calling to catch up.”

I smile. “It’s nice to hear your voice.”

“Yours too, honey,” she says. Then suddenly her voice gets higher. “Oh! Well, I guess I do have some kind of exciting news.”

“You and Dad are finally going to start the renovation?”

My mom laughs. Thanks to a myriad of setbacks, it’s been an ongoing joke in our family that the home renovation my parents have been talking about for years is never actually going to happen.

But now, my mom says, “Actually…yes.”

“Wait,” I say, slowing to take a right turn. I’m only a few minutes away from my apartment building now. “You’re just joking around, right?”

“Nope. We really are, Mia.”

“That’s great, Mom. That’s really exciting. When does construction start?”

“In just a few weeks,” she says. “This company we’re working with is amazing. They’re the only company we’ve talked to who have been able to figure out solutions for all the issues we were having. I’m very impressed with them already.”

I make one last turn. “Awesome. I’m glad you guys found them.”

“Actually,” says my mom, “I think you might know the owner of the company. His name is Axel Moreland. Didn’t he go to your high school? I didn’t make the connection until after our meeting with him, but—”

Reflexively, my foot presses down on the gas pedal and I almost rear-end the car in front of me. I slam on the brakes just in time.

“What?” I spit out.

“Sorry, did I cut out, honey?”

“No, you…” I try to collect myself. A car honks behind me and I pull my car over into an empty parking space. “What do you mean, you hiredAxel Moreland?”

“He owns the construction company. Is something wrong, Mia?”

Axel. Even just hearing his name makes me feel ill. In high school, he made my life a living hell. And while I’ve recovered from that vicious time in my life, I’ve never forgiven him. After all, he’s never made any effort to redeem himself.

Not that I expected him to.

But the thought of him stepping foot into my childhood home…and the thought of him tearing down walls and putting his hands all over everything and invading the space…fuck. It fills me with revulsion.

“You shouldn’t work with him,” I tell my mom.

“We shouldn’t? Why not?”

“Because he…” I find myself incapable of telling her, though. Even though I know that none of that bullying was my fault, I hate people knowing about it, because it makes me sound weak. And even though I know my mom would never judge me like that…I just can’t tell her. Not like this, over a speakerphone conversation, at least.

“Can I call you back later?” I say. “I just got to my apartment.”

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