That was the most honest thing he’d said so far.
And somehow the most unsettling.
Mason
She didn’t look away.
That was becoming the constant now.
Rowan didn’t break eye contact quickly like most people did.
She held it.
Not aggressively.
Just present.
I shifted slightly toward the desk.
Not closing distance.
Not increasing it either.
Just… existing in the same frame as her.
“That must get lonely,” she said again.
I exhaled.
“You keep saying that.”
“Because it looks like it.”
I didn’t deny it.
That was new.
Instead:
“It’s not about loneliness,” I said.
“What is it about.”
I paused.
Longer than before.
Because this wasn’t something I usually named.
Then:
“Control.”
That word stayed in the room longer than anything else we’d said tonight.
Rowan
Control.
