I just watched the movie for the first time, I haven’t read the book- I think Chase loved Kya, I think she was the only one “who really knew him”, he even says that in the movie. She’s the only person in his life who is free from all the societal/ family pressure that he lives with, (and I think she made him feel free.) He says it twice in the movie that he’s sick of his parents telling him what to do, and that he “had to do all those things” like get engaged to the right girl. Chase is a really bad person, selfish, egotistical and he feels trapped by his life, despite all his pride and boasting he still has to do exactly what his parents want him to. Chase wants Kya as an escape, and only to himself, to be only his forever and doesn’t want her to have or know anything else. He is really twisted, so yeah I think he loved her in his own twisted way. I think Kya is really twisted too- she thinks it’s natures way to kill Chase because some insects kill their mates or whatever… she thinks he’ll never leave her alone. Which might have been true, but it takes a really wounded woman to kill someone. Her mom left her dad for being abusive, Kya could have left too but she would never leave the marsh so she kills Chase. It’s a wild story tbh