“Okay.”
He studied my face, trying to read between the lines. “What did you need?”
He hadn’t even listened to my voicemail. If that wasn’t all the evidence I needed, I didn’t know what would be. “Nothing important.”
Mason opened his mouth to say something, but Justin and Lyla barreling through the back door cut him off. Justin held up a hand for a high-five. “Mase! We went to Cain and Kennedy’s, and I taught myself to flip off the trampoline into the lake. It was so sick.”
Mason grinned. “We’ll have to go back this weekend so you can show me.”
“I did the biggest cannonball. I have to show you!” Lyla cut in.
“Maybe after dinner, you can show me in the pool.”
“Totally,” she agreed.
I lost myself in preparing the meal, in the din of the chatter. I should’ve been happy. Justin and Lyla were flourishing, even amid the trauma of these past months. But inside, a piece of me was dying. Because I knew I’d never have what I wanted most—for all of us to be a real family.
I pausedand listened as I reached the second floor. There wasn’t a peep of sound coming from Justin’s or Lyla’s rooms. I still couldn’t resist peeking inside. Justin slept like a starfish, arms and legs thrown wide. Lyla was the opposite, curling herself into a ball so tight, I didn’t know how it was comfortable.
I envied them both in that moment. I wanted the sweet oblivion of deep sleep. But I knew I’d be lucky if I got a few fitful hours. I’d thought briefly about pretending to fall asleep on the couch downstairs where I’d been working on my laptop. But it only meant delaying the inevitable. Tomorrow night, I’d have to sleep in that bed, feel Mason’s body next to mine but know we were worlds away.
I climbed that final stretch of stairs to the third floor, sending up a silent prayer that he was already asleep. The deep timbre of Mason’s voice told me that I was out of luck. I paused on the landing, trying to brace myself to walk inside.
“Were you able to find any more photos?”
Silence.
“Were there drugs in any of them?”
My body tensed, and I took a step forward. I could see Mason through the sliver the open door provided. He sat up in bed, the glasses he wore to read perched lopsidedly on his nose.
“I just want to see what we’re dealing with, Dante. Know if more skeletons are going to jump out and surprise us.”
I’d thought I was hurting before. The knowledge that I wasn’t as important to Mason as I thought I was had cut. But that was nothing compared to this. Going behind my back, trying to get information on me… Ironically, information I’d been trying to give him if he would’ve simply called me back.
I stepped into the room, my gaze hot. Mason’s eyes flew to me. “I need to go. I’ll call you tomorrow.” He hung up, swinging his legs over the bed and standing. “Anna—”
“Don’t.” I held out a hand to keep him from coming any closer.
“It’s not what it sounded like.”
“So it wasn’t you asking a private investigator to look into me without asking me if that was okay?”
He ran a hand through his hair, giving the ends a firm tug. “I was going to tell you tonight. Juliette had some internet results about you, and I wanted to make sure more wouldn’t surface that could hurt the legal case.”
My jaw worked back and forth. I wanted to destroy every single internet search engine. “Did you ever once consider asking me if that was okay?”
“I only wanted to protect you.”
“Bullshit. You wanted to know things that I wasn’t ready to share yet. You wanted to open every dark closet I have without my permission. And you want to know what’s hilarious? I called you today to tell you that someone sent me a photo. That we might need to prepare for more coming to light. I treated you like we were on the same team. But you? You’re treating me like the enemy.”
“Anna.”
Mason’s voice was pained, but I forced down the flash of sympathy that flared to life. I met his gaze dead-on. “I trusted you. The thing that is hardest for me to do, and you shat all over that.”
“I didn’t mean—”
“No.” I held up a hand. “I don’t want any excuses. I can’t deal with this right now.” I started for the door.
