JACOB: I’m fucking serious
JACOB: Fuck it—my lawyer is filing the paperwork
I read the words,my hand braced on my desk as my vision blurs at the edges. He can’t be serious but…
I can’t lose them.
AMARA: A friend of a friend said Jacob is on a warpath today
AMARA: Did something happen since he went to the college yesterday??
LANA: He’s threatening to take the kids if I don’t break up with Mason
AMARA: What are you going to do?
LANA: I have to protect them
All of them.
I can’t lose my kids, and I can’t let Mason be in the crosshairs of this. He’d given me the most incredible couple of months, and maybe someday we’ll find each other again, when the stakes aren’t so high.
But right now I have to do it.
I have to break both of us.
So because my day can’t get any worse, I pick up my phone with shaky hands and type out a text that will be the beginning of the end.
LANA: We need to talk
MASON: What happened?
LANA: Everything
MASON: Are you okay? What the hell happened?
LANA: Come over after work and we’ll talk
26
MASON
Like every man in the history of the world that has ever heard the phrasewe need to talk,I know that I’m walking into an ambush. Dread settles into my bones as I try to push the bullshit down, even though I know it’s useless.
Because I know better.
I know better.
Something felt off yesterday, something I couldn’t shake, and instead of going over and seeing my girl, I’d brushed it off.
Big fucking mistake.
Because I’d bet everything I own that she’s gonna try and end things with me, that something has spooked her and she’s gonna run.
Without even trying.
Without giving me a choice.
The thought has me nearly crawling out of my skin.
