Page 173 of Please Hate Me

Mason’s chest heaved as she held onto me like her life depended on it.

“If you go home, he wins. He doesn’t deserve another moment of your peace.”

She struggled against my hand to pull away, and it took me a moment to relax enough to let her go.

“It doesn’t matter if he deserves it, I need to go home—”

“Youarehome.” I changed my tactics, cupping her face. “Home is where your family is.”

“Lucian, other than him, I don’t have—”

“Bullshit!” I snapped. “You have me and Sophia and Cameron and the kids… and Sebastian.”Unfortunately. “We want you. We love you. We will keep you safe.”

Her brow furrowed, like she still couldn’t understand what I was saying. Fuck it, I’d just have to lay it all out for her, make an absolute fucking idiot of myself. It was the only way to get through to her.

“... I have spent years loving you, Mason. I couldn’t stop, no matter how much I wanted to. The thought of you leaving kills me, but not nearly as much as the idea of you letting James destroy you.”

The weight of the situation fell on my shoulders, threatening to crush me if I didn’t defuse Mason’s pain. But how the hell could I do that?

I looked around the room before my eyes settled on a set of rose-gold scissors, the ones Sophia kept on the counter for cutting tags off of clothes. My body moved quicker than my mind as I snatched the tool off the counter. I needed Mason to understand that her life belonged to her, and her alone. She didn’t live to please anyone else. Her father’s validation wasn’t the only thing that made her life worth living. I just couldn’t find the right words to convey that.

Instead, I whirled around and hacked off a chunk of Mason’s raven-colored locks. It fluttered to the floor before pooling into a dark pile.

Something about the action snapped both of us out of the emotional haze we had been trapped in. Her eyes widened as she reached back, brushing her fingers against the barely shoulder-length section of her hair. Her lips parted like she was about to give me an earful, like she was rightfully going to tell me off for doing something so drastic, but I beat her to the punch.

“In your song, you said it takes seven years to have a body someone never touched. I don’t know what that means, but I know it’s about atoms dying or some shit that’s way too smart for me to understand.” I swallowed hard, trying to ignore how dry my mouth felt.

“In seven years, you will have a body James Albright never hurt. And you’ll be safe, and your life will be great. I can’t promise it’ll be perfect, but I’ll try. Just for the love of fucking God. Do. Not. Leave.”

She shook her head as her lips parted, and I feared the argument was about to reignite.

“Even if my dad is terrible, no one in this world deserves to die alone.”

I studied her, willing the tears that stained my cheeks to dry. How could she be so compassionate toward someone who had hurt her so much?

But... it wasn’t my place to tell her how to feel. I had to support the decision she made, even if it was objectively bad.

“If you have to go, promise me you’ll come back—Better yet, take me with you, andthencome back.”

Her lips quivered as she studied me.

“You’d want to do that?”

I nodded. “Family sticks together. You’re part of our family now, for better or worse.”

Her eyes widened.

“I never have to be alone again?”

“Never.”

Something in our conversation clicked, allowing Mason to fully let her guard down. She wrapped her arms around me and melted into my chest, just as she had done before. This time felt different; somehow, this moment was stronger. I wasn’t going to shush her as she wailed, mourning a man who never deserved to know her. For better or for worse, she needed to feel this, and I needed to stay by her side.

At some point, the door creaked open, and Sophia stepped in. She looked around, her eyes widening with horror as she noticed the pile of hair next to her scissors on the floor. But she remained quiet before joining me in holding Mason, trying to ease the weight of the world from someone who had carried it for far too long. At that moment, it was just the three of us, and I knew deep down that we should have stayed together all along.

I just hoped Mason felt the same.

Chapter 48

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