Page 136 of Please Hate Me

Mason’s smile was just one of the many things that made her uniquely, unfairly beautiful.

Her expression softened, and her lips parted—but before she could respond, her phone buzzed.

Mason quickly covered her mouth and grabbed her phone, slowly inching the device closer like she couldn’t read the screen. I tried to peer over her shoulder so I could see who was calling, but her whole screen, including the contact name, was in French.

Once the buzzing stopped, I could see the tremble in Mason’s hand.

“Who was that?”

Mason swallowed hard, her eyes still fixed on the screen. “My dad’s assistant… That’s the second time he’s called me today.”

My heart stilled as a sinking feeling filled my chest. It was weird that Mason’s dad wouldn’t just call her himself, but I also didn’t understand what it was like to be a celebrity. Maybe I was looking too far into it.

“Don’t call them back.” I took Mason’s phone, placing it on my side of the bed before wrapping my arms around her. “James doesn’t get any more of your time; you’re ours now.”

I should have asked Mason what she wanted to do. But I was worried they’d ask her to come back to France, and... I just didn’t know if I could recover from losing her again.

Mason excused herself to go wash up for bed, giving me a quiet moment to look around my room. I liked to keep things nice and organized, but still, I had a lot of stuff packed into the space. Stacks of books, my wall of instruments, my snake shelf…

Wait a minute.

One of my notebooks had somehow ended up in front of Pearl’s terrarium. As I grabbed the book, a red pen clattered to the floor. My brow furrowed as I flipped through the pages, looking for signs of red ink. After a moment, I found a page covered in Mason’s rigid, uniform handwriting.

I sat in my chair as I read through it. By the end, my chest was full, and my breathing shallow. There was no way in hell she ever would have wanted me to read this, but I was glad I did. I glanced at my door to make sure she wasn’t about to walk back in, then I tore out the page.

Chapter 37

Mason

There was no feeling worse than waking up in a bad mood for no reason.

I glared at Lucian’s ceiling fan, watching the lazy shadows circle the corners of the room. Around six this morning, Juniper slammed the door open and bound onto Lucian’s chest, yowling like a cat. Instinctively, Lucian covered me head to toe in his comforter and got the little girl out of there as quickly as possible. All of a sudden, I was wide awake with a blanket suffocating me, listening to Lucian wrestle a three-year-old. Honestly, I was furious, even if I understood the reason he was hiding me.

Maybe I’d want to stay if I actually had confirmation that they wanted me. I was only planning on leaving because I still felt like an outsider in their family. Like I was the weird uncle who insisted on visiting once a year, even though everyone would rather he didn’t.

I groaned and scrubbed my face as I sat up. Lucian had left a packet of crackers and a juice box for me on his nightstand, but Ihad exhausted both those resources and was ready for an actual meal. I swung my feet over the side of the bed; the wooden floor was cool under my toes, and I shivered as I stood.

The house was alive with the sounds of a family I’d never really be part of.

Normally, I was fine with this, but today, it caused a sinking feeling to form in my chest. I needed someone to talk to, but I felt like Sophia would lie to save my feelings, Cameron would sugarcoat the truth, and Lucian would make fun of me. That left only one person who might be able to talk me down from the metaphorical ledge I was approaching.

I looked both ways to make sure nobody was around before dashing down the hall, stopping just before entering the living room. Everybody was sitting around the table in the breakfast nook, so they’d definitely see me if I just walked through the living room.

I’d just have to run for it.

Pregnant as I was, it was hard to properly run, so my socks kept slipping around on the hardwood floor. Still, I managed to slide myself into the short hallway toward the foyer. I nearly crashed into the massive holiday tree as I bolted toward the stairs. From there, I just needed to run through the gameroom—honestly, I’d never seen anyone hanging out in there—and I was at Sebastian’s door.

When I entered the apartment, Sebastian looked like he had been up for hours. He was dressed in his gym clothes, sitting at the table with a cup of coffee and a newspaper that looked about as old as me.

His glasses fogged up as he took a sip, barely acknowledging my presence.

“Good morning,” I called, slowly shutting the door behind me.

Sebastian’s lips pressed into a thin line as he swallowed his drink.

“Morning.”

I sat across from him, and he raised an eyebrow as he put the paper down.

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