Page 117 of Please Open Me
Maybe she blamed me for all the girls Dale slaughtered.
Her shoulders curled tighter, and she buried her chin into her knees. Slowly, she shook her head, and I let out a sigh of relief. Then, I realized I still had no ideawhyshe didn’t want me involved with the baby.
“I’m seven weeks and four days, there wasn’t a lot to see,” she added, still not looking at me.
I swallowed hard, fighting the lump in my throat. “Doesn’t matter. A blur on a screen, a flicker of a heartbeat, that’s stillours.”
Mason finally lifted her gaze, but only for a second, and I caught the flash of something sharp buried under the exhaustion. Fear. Distrust. A wall I couldn’t climb, no matter how many times I threw myself at it. A wall I didn’t create but had been locked out of anyway.
“I think Lucian fucked with my birth control.”
I suppressed the mixture of shock and rage boiling under the surface of my calm exterior. Maybe that wasn’t true, but, considering his relapse, I wouldn’t put it past him. If he'd done anything of the sort, I’d wring his neck.
“Sweetpea, why do you think that?”
“Just, something happened with my birth control a week or so ago.” She shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”
Oh, but itdid, and I was going to fuckingkillhim. Lucian, as much as I loved him, did a lot of shitty things. Most of it I blamed on his addiction, but this was hard to excuse. My fists clenched, and I shook my head as I reminded myself I had bigger fish to fry.
“Okay, but why don’t you want me to see the baby?” My voice shook with barely contained anger.
Mason’s eyes widened as she shrank away from me, and I lost the words to tell her this wasn’t her fault. I wasn’t mad at her. Never her. Just her piece of shit husband.
“I just saw some…thingsthat I’m still processing.” Her lips twisted into a sad smile.
“Uh, okay. Well, Leo said you had to rest–what was that about?”
“I was spotting and cramping. The doctor said it’s stress, and not drinking enough, and maybe not eating enough, and, well... I kind of dissociated. You’d have to ask her.” Mason’s cheeks flushed.
My pulse kicked up, and I tried not to make things worse.
“Well, everyone’s really worried about you.”
“I know,” she whispered, and it sounded like an apology she didn’t owe anyone.
Her eyes glossed over as her lower lip wobbled.
“I… Did you know about Sebastian and Sophia?” She batted at her eyes with the sleeve of her sweatshirt.
For a moment, I paused, remembering how Sebastian told me he killed Mason’s mom. He didn’t want to, but she’d essentially forced his hand. But that wasn’t my story to tell, and I couldn’t imagine thatnowwas the right time for her to find out.
“Sophia surprised me.” I scratched my head.
“And Seb?”
My lips pressed together as I turned away.
“You knew?” Hurt filled her words.
“I did.” The words made me feel sick, but they were the truth.
Exactly one sob exited Mason, and I couldn’t force myself to look at her.
“And you let him around me and the kids?” Her voice cracked, the words sharp and broken as if made of nothing but glass.
I forced myself to look at her then, even though it hurt more than if she’d hauled off and punched me in the jaw. Tears streaked down her flushed cheeks, and she held herself so tightly it was like she thought she’d disappear if her grip loosened.
“Mason, he would never hurt you or the kids,” I said, hating how thin the words sounded. “I’d never let anyone hurt–”
