Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 130512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
I just didn’t know why.
“Mason,” I choked out. The bedding fell from my hands. I still didn’t move. “What is it?”
He continued to hold my gaze, and for a second, the absolute longing he let me see singed me. I’d never not remember that look from him. It was raw, deep, and it cut to the bone. Then he closed his eyes. Some of the contact was broken between us, but he only lifted his head, and drew in some air. His shoulders lifted, rolled back, and settled back down.
He was preparing himself.
For what? To do what?
“Mason.” My voice was still so hoarse. “What is it?”
His eyes opened. They were so bleak.
I was gutted from seeing that look from him. It wasn’t supposed to be there. Not him. Not anymore. We’d gone through our trials. We’d had so many battles, and none of them broke us. We persevered and we were better because of it, but that look wasn’t supposed to come back on his face.
My heart began pounding.
“Mom?” Maddy came over from the living room. I’d been in view of their room where she had been, her and the others. Max came over next, rounding Maddy’s side to step into the hall. He looked from myself to Mason, and as soon as he did, he snapped to attention. He drew in a sudden breath, before looking to me again.
Max, the dear boy—no. He was a man by now. A young man. He settled a hand on Maddy’s arm and positioned himself so he was between her and us. I noticed the movement, but it wasn’t to protect her from us. It was to protect her from what Mason was bringing with him, but as soon as he registered his own motion, his shoulders dropped just as abruptly because he knew, just as I did, that whatever Mason had to say, he was going to say no matter what.
Max couldn’t stop it from happening. He couldn’t stop it from hurting Maddy, and I watched as he came to that realization as well. A sudden look of defeat flared over his face before he folded his chin and stepped close to Maddy’s side. He got as close as he could.
Sounds of movement came from behind them. The others came in.
Beltraine, Axel, and Steele. Cautious and confused expressions were on all three of them. Guarded too.
I tried to give them a reassuring smile, but I knew it fell flat.
“Mom?” Maddy asked, her voice dropping.
Her heart clenched because she’d resorted to the same voice she used when she was a little girl. She was scared. My little girl who was convinced she was some sort of sociopath. Her voice trembled in fear. “What’s going on?”
Mason cleared his throat.
She looked his way. “Dad?”
There was a hallway that separated the others from where Mason stood, but he heard them approaching and I held his gaze. His nostrils flared. His eyes met mine, holding mine for a moment, before a wall slammed into place.
No… I ached at seeing that expression on his face.
It’d been so long since I saw it.
I hadn’t realized till now that I never missed it. Not once. I wished I’d never have to see it again, but here it was.
My heart thumped hard in my chest, and with it, I reeled back in time to when I was Maddy’s age. When being numb or rageful were the only two emotions that got me through life.
“What’s going on?” Beltraine asked the question, stepping forward as their leader. His voice was also hoarse, but that was from all the vomiting he’d done before going to the hospital.
I ignored him. I ignored all of them, including my daughter and Max. A bitter laugh slipped from me as I addressed Mason. “I thought we were done with this?”
I had tunnel vision on my husband. Everything else was pushed to the back, including the gasp I heard from my daughter. She hadn’t moved a muscle. Nor had I, but suddenly, she was a mile away.
The mask lifted from Mason’s face, but only just barely. I got a hint of an apology, and that sealed everything inside of me.
I began shaking my head and took a step back. No.
No.
I wasn’t going to deal with this. Not anymore. My ghosts were gone. My mother was dead. I had no other skeletons in the closet, but Mason continued to hold my stare.
Whatever this was, whatever he was bringing into the house, it had to do with me.
If it’d been him, he wouldn’t be looking as if he’d rather cut out his own heart than deliver what news he had. If it’d been about the kids, he wouldn’t still be in the doorway. Anyone else, he would’ve called or said it to me directly. There’d be none of this premonition heartbreak.
Maddy was speaking, but I couldn’t pull myself out of this trance.