Page 149 of Please Hate Me

“We don’t have to worry about that for a while…right?” I repeated, hoping the line had just cut out.

“Define ‘a while’.”

“Lucky… What do you know that I don’t?”

Sweat collected on my skin, leaving the screen of my phone to stick to my cheek.

“I had this dickhead of a client in my chair, and.... we somehow got onto the topic of Mason.”

He probably called her to visit and wasn’t smart enough to realize she’s famous.

“But uh… he told me James was dead.”

My chest tightened, and I tugged at my collar, suddenly overheated even though the October chill of Maine had turned my SUV into an icebox.

“Is he?”

James Albright was a terrible human being and a worse father, but Mason adored him for some inexplicable reason. If he died, she would be destroyed. I wasn’t even sure she’d recover by the time Lavender was born.

“Not yet,” Lucian breathed. “Headlines say he’s in critical condition after driving drunk and crashing a black sports car into the wall of a tunnel.”

My heart fell further still, threatening to fall on the floor as my hands shook.

“That’shercar.”

“And that makes this whole situation even worse… He’s on life support, and every news outlet is saying they’re waiting on Mason before they make any medical decisions.”

“Like... emergency surgery?” Mason was James’s only living relative. She was probably his medical power of attorney.

Lucian hesitated a moment before responding.

“When Sophia’s grandad was dying, her mom— Sorry; Heather, sometimes I forget she has two—told me that hospitals never ask about doing things that could save someone’s life, only things to end them… They probably want Mason’s permission to pull the plug.”

My fingers were icy as I covered my mouth and shook my head. Oh, my poor girl.

“I’m going to try to keep her distracted and off her phone for as long as possible,” he continued. “That way, she’s away from the news and can’t answer any calls about James.”

“Shouldn’t youwanther to know? It’s not like you can hide the death of a family member forever.“ Especially one who’s world-famous.

He exhaled a shaky breath. “I know you don’t like the idea of Mason being with me, even if you pushed her to be with us in thefirst place… Honestly, I kind of thought you just liked the idea of seeing girl-on-girl action between her and Sophia.”

Somewhat correct.

“But the last time she had a death in the family, she ran.” Lucian’s voice finally broke, and I wondered if he was crying.

I detested my failure of a brother, but deep down, I still loved him. At least, I thought I did. I wasn’t going to actively seek out a hug from him or to spend time with him willingly… But, if he died, I’d probably cry the same way I had when he overdosed.

“I just can’t risk her leaving again.” His voice was little more than a pathetic whimper.

“Why?”

“Sebastian. I’m only going to say this once.” I could hear exactly one muffled sob, which caused my chest to ache. “I’m so painfully in love with Mason that it isn’t fair. I always have been, and it never stopped, no matter how much I wanted it to. When I’m with her, it’s like I can breathe again, and I didn’t even know I was suffocating!”

He sounded as fed up with his feelings as I felt. Mason wasmine,and I was one second away from reminding him of that, but he continued to speak.

“I don’t care if you take her and get married and—Well, actually, Idocare. But, as long as you’re good to her, I’ll be fine. I can survive knowing Mason is happy without me. I can survive seeing her at family events. I might even be able to get through your wedding, with enough mental preparation. But I can’t survive if she goes halfway across the globe. The last time she went to France, James did whatever to her, and she changed.”

As he continued to speak, Lucian’s voice was raw with an emotion I could barely process.

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