47. Chapter 47

Chapter 47

Lucian

Mason didn’t fight me when I forced her into my Jeep. She didn’t even swat me away when I put a hand on her thigh, squeezing it softly to let her know I was there. But she didn’t respond either. The only hint I had at how she felt was the glaze of tears in her eyes.

This was bad . I wasn’t sure if I should apologize for not telling her, or comfort her by letting her know what was going on. All I knew was I didn’t want her to leave.

“Do you want to talk about—”

“You lied to me.” The shake in her voice betrayed the edge she tried to inject into her words.

My heart beat a little faster as I tried to think of a way to justify my actions. If I were to do that, I’d need to bear my soul to Mason.

I’d have to tell her the things I’d rather keep hidden from the light of day. I was terrified to live without her. I was selfish, and not willing to risk losing her. I was so unfathomably in love with her that it felt like my world didn’t spin without her.

But I didn’t have the courage to say any of that.

“I didn’t lie… I just didn’t tell you when I found out.” I scratched my neck as I spoke.

“How long did you know?”

“Only for about a day. That douchebag I was tattooing told me.”

“Does anyone else in the house know?”

My stomach bottomed out as a nervous feeling crept into my veins, causing my hands to shake and sweat to collect on my palms.

“Everyone except the kids.”

I could feel Mason’s eyes on me, but she didn’t talk anymore. Honestly, I was glad. I had no idea what else I could say to her.

Three other adults lived in our house. Sophia was the most comforting of all of us; she had this magic power to mend hearts. Cameron knew what to say no matter what the situation, as only a pastor could. And Sebastian, well, he had this unique ability to pull words out of his ass and tell people what they wanted to hear. In a house full of expert communicators, she was stuck with me.

Why the fuck did she have to be stuck with me ?

Mason had just started to be mine again. I didn’t know how to be whole without her. And there I sat, helpless, afraid I was about to relive the worst day of my life.

Tonight would be the night that Mason Albright walked out of my life again. She was going to go to France to be by her dad’s side, and she would never speak to any of us again. Over time, her month with us in Maine would become a distant memory, overtaken by her exciting celebrity lifestyle...

But I wouldn’t be granted that luxury. I’d be cursed to remember everything, to spend the rest of my life replaying our last moments like a fucked-up highlight reel. My eyes burned as the road blurred into a mess of lights and colors.

As I yanked the steering wheel to keep the car from slamming into the guardrail, determination set in. God had brought Mason back into my life—there was no other explanation. The chain of events that brought us back together was a series of small miracles, and I would be an absolute cock if I didn’t take this impossible chance to redo my mistakes.

Tonight wouldn’t be the night Mason ran away, because I was about to prove I could be exactly the partner she needed me to be.

For some fucking reason, I decided Sophia’s master bathroom would be the best place to have this conversation. The room consisted of various shades of white and blue, and the air always smelled like whatever floral scent Sophia liked that month. It was a calming space, but more importantly, Mason would have to walk through three separate doors if she wanted to leave the house. I was hoping one of us could catch her before she flew out the front door.

But as we snuck through Sophia’s darkened bedroom, I almost felt silly.

Once we reached the bathroom, I turned the light on and sealed the door behind us. We had managed not to wake Sophia so far, and I wanted to keep it that way.

God, if you’re listening, please don’t let her leave.

Mason planted her hands on the counter around the sink, her hair spilling over her like an onyx waterfall as she heaved in a breath. Tears pattered against the sink as she quietly choked on her emotions, and I stayed frozen.

After a moment, her shoulders straightened. One sharp inhale, and her crying suddenly stopped. A lump formed in my throat as she turned around. Her eyes were puffy, but determined.

“I need you to take me to the airport.” The only hint of emotion was the shake in her voice.

“You need to take a breath.”

That was a terrible attempt to calm her down, even for me. If I wanted her to stay, I needed to step the fuck up.

She shook her head, and her bottom lip quivered.

“My dad needs me.”

I closed my eyes and held my breath, trying to center myself.

“Your dad is an abuser who—”

“He’s my dad! ”

This was the loudest Mason had spoken since coming back, and it killed me.

“Don’t you think I know he’s terrible?” She pointed at her chest. “Lucian, he attached a modified shock collar to my wrist so that he could zap me when I misbehaved.”

A sick feeling formed in my stomach as she marched toward me.

“He starved me within an inch of my life because I wasn’t pretty enough. I’m still not pretty enough!“ She sounded angrier now. “I spent the last six years changing every part of me he didn’t like, just so my dad would love me again.”

My eyes burned as she came inches from me.

“If he dies, I will never have time to prove that I deserved his love.” Mason’s gaze bore into mine as her chest shuddered. “Even if that never happens, I need to show him I can be a good mom!”

Her voice cracked, filling the room like thunder before a storm. Her hair fell in her face, and she pushed it back with quick, jerky movements.

“Did you know my dad never lost custody of me?”

I shook my head, not sure where this was going.

“Every time my dad missed a phone call or didn’t show up to visit when he promised to, I’d be forced to cry to Leona because half the time my mom wasn’t even allowed to see me. He knew my mom was abusing me, and he never came to save me. Lucian, when I left America, I called him before I boarded the plane, and he promised that if I did everything he said, he’d love me just like he did when I was a little girl.”

The lump in my throat made it impossible for me to swallow.

“I did everything to earn his love.” She pointed to her chest again before pulling at her hair, and for a moment, I was worried she was going to rip some out. “I grew my hair out for six fucking years just because he said I looked ugly when it was short—and now he gets to die before I have the last laugh? How the fuck is that fair?”

Tears rolled down her cheeks in fat streams as she came toe to toe with me. The pain in her eyes was almost enough to kill me, and I couldn’t imagine how she was feeling.

I had run through mental monologues in the car, things I’d say to make the situation right, to help her feel better, and to end the night with her in my arms. But all those words disappeared like a handful of sand in the wind.

“He will never be able to tell me why I’ve never been good enough.”

With that, all the anger left her body, leaving her to deflate into my chest. Her hands wound into the fabric of my shirt as she sobbed. I didn’t realize she wasn’t the only one crying until dark, damp spots began dripping into her dark hair. I wrapped my arms around Mason, letting her shake as all the right words stayed balanced on the tip of my tongue.

She looked up at me as her whole body trembled.

“Why am I never good enough for the people I love?”

I couldn’t take the look of desperation in her eyes, so I hid her face in my chest. Her sadness saturated my shirt, soaking into my skin as I struggled to breathe.

She was more than good enough. Unfortunately for her, in a world of white rabbits, Mason was a black cat. Not bad, just misunderstood—unlucky, perhaps. But fuck luck, fuck France, fuck anyone that ever made Mason feel like that, but most importantly—

“Fuck James Albright.”

My words were barely audible as I spoke through my teeth. “There is not a goddamn thing he could ever do to deserve having a daughter as wonderful as you—and fuck him for not seeing that.”

Mason’s chest heaved as she held onto me like her life depended on it.

“If you go home, he wins. He doesn’t deserve another moment of your peace.”

She struggled against my hand to pull away, and it took me a moment to relax enough to let her go.

“It doesn’t matter if he deserves it, I need to go home—”

“You are home.” I changed my tactics, cupping her face. “Home is where your family is.”

“Lucian, other than him, I don’t have—”

“Bullshit!” I snapped. “You have me and Sophia and Cameron and the kids… and Sebastian.” Unfortunately. “ We want you. We love you. We will keep you safe.”

Her brow furrowed, like she still couldn’t understand what I was saying. Fuck it, I’d just have to lay it all out for her, make an absolute fucking idiot of myself. It was the only way to get through to her.

“... I have spent years loving you, Mason. I couldn’t stop, no matter how much I wanted to. The thought of you leaving kills me, but not nearly as much as the idea of you letting James destroy you.”

The weight of the situation fell on my shoulders, threatening to crush me if I didn’t defuse Mason’s pain. But how the hell could I do that?

I looked around the room before my eyes settled on a set of rose-gold scissors, the ones Sophia kept on the counter for cutting tags off of clothes. My body moved quicker than my mind as I snatched the tool off the counter. I needed Mason to understand that her life belonged to her, and her alone. She didn’t live to please anyone else. Her father’s validation wasn’t the only thing that made her life worth living. I just couldn’t find the right words to convey that.

Instead, I whirled around and hacked off a chunk of Mason’s raven-colored locks. It fluttered to the floor before pooling into a dark pile.

Something about the action snapped both of us out of the emotional haze we had been trapped in. Her eyes widened as she reached back, brushing her fingers against the barely shoulder-length section of her hair. Her lips parted like she was about to give me an earful, like she was rightfully going to tell me off for doing something so drastic, but I beat her to the punch.

“In your song, you said it takes seven years to have a body someone never touched. I don’t know what that means, but I know it’s about atoms dying or some shit that’s way too smart for me to understand.” I swallowed hard, trying to ignore how dry my mouth felt.

“In seven years, you will have a body James Albright never hurt. And you’ll be safe, and your life will be great. I can’t promise it’ll be perfect, but I’ll try. Just for the love of fucking God. Do. Not. Leave.”

She shook her head as her lips parted, and I feared the argument was about to reignite.

“Even if my dad is terrible, no one in this world deserves to die alone.”

I studied her, willing the tears that stained my cheeks to dry. How could she be so compassionate toward someone who had hurt her so much?

But... it wasn’t my place to tell her how to feel. I had to support the decision she made, even if it was objectively bad.

“If you have to go, promise me you’ll come back—Better yet, take me with you, and then come back.”

Her lips quivered as she studied me.

“You’d want to do that?”

I nodded. “Family sticks together. You’re part of our family now, for better or worse.”

Her eyes widened.

“I never have to be alone again?”

“Never.”

Something in our conversation clicked, allowing Mason to fully let her guard down. She wrapped her arms around me and melted into my chest, just as she had done before. This time felt different; somehow, this moment was stronger. I wasn’t going to shush her as she wailed, mourning a man who never deserved to know her. For better or for worse, she needed to feel this, and I needed to stay by her side.

At some point, the door creaked open, and Sophia stepped in. She looked around, her eyes widening with horror as she noticed the pile of hair next to her scissors on the floor. But she remained quiet before joining me in holding Mason, trying to ease the weight of the world from someone who had carried it for far too long. At that moment, it was just the three of us, and I knew deep down that we should have stayed together all along.

I just hoped Mason felt the same.