Finally.
Still aware of him.
Still aware of everything.
And I hated how normal it already felt.
Like this wasn’t the first time we’d been in a space that small.
Like it wouldn’t be the last.
Mason didn’t move from the window.
But I could feel him anyway.
That was becoming the pattern.
Not looking.
Not speaking.
Just presence.
And somehow—
that was the loudest part.
Twenty Four
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
MASON
Night made the room feel smaller.
That was the first thing I noticed.
Not the beds.
Not the furniture.
Just the fact that everything got quieter in a way that didn’t feel natural for a city like New York.
Rowan had turned the main light off.
Only the small lamp near her bed was on now.
Warm. Dim. Controlled.
She was sitting on the edge of her bed with her phone in her hand, not really looking at it.
I could tell.
Because I was doing the same thing without meaning to.
Pretending.
That was the word for it.
