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“Worse.”
“He ghosted me for seven years and never read my letters.”
He adds two tallies under my name for that one.
I think on it. “He told me he’d take it back. Everything we had.”
Another tally.
“But I think that was just him hating himself for hurting me and wishing he hadn’t.”
Mason sighs in defeat. “I’m not rubbing it out.”
I smile into his shoulder.
“Now give me some good things.”
“Mase, this is ridiculous. There are a million good things.”
“I don’t know them. Tell me.”
I shake my head and smile. “He used to drive out here after work every day. He’d spend the night with me just to drive all the way back at stupid o’clock in the morning. And he’d always find time for Dad, too, checking if he needed anything.” I look up at Mase. “He cared about Dad.”
Mason smiles. “What else?”
“He never gave up. Even when I pushed him away. I was horrible when Dad died, said some really awful things.”
“Yeah, me, too,” Mason says.
“He always listened to me, to what I wanted, and he stayed away when I asked him but never let me be fully alone.”
“I have one. One you don’t know about.”
“What do you mean you have one? You didn’t know about us back then.”
“I know what an asshole I was to you. So did he.” He pulls in a lungful of air before releasing it. “I signed the house over to you when I was in the midst of losing Nina.” He holds me tighter when I flinch. “Lance came to my office one evening, and I was preparing the papers for Charlie. Had the original deeds there ready to send off.”
What?
I have to force my words past the bitter lump in my throat. “What did he do?”
“He took them and never gave them to Charlie. He knew how badly it would hurt you to have me step away from this place completely. He did it for you.”
“When was this?”
“Around the same time shit hit the fan with Jasmine. He told Nina that he buried them on the estate.”
He continues to exceed every one of my expectations. “I had no idea.”
He leans forward, adding four tallies. I stare at them, knowing the scales will always tip in his favour. He’s one of the best men I’ve ever known. I’ve done worse to Lance than Lance has to me.
But… “He still left me, Mase. It doesn’t change that fact.”
“Wait here.” Mason stands, heading back into the house.
When he settles back down beside me, I see he has one of my mother’s diaries in his hand. “There’s an entry you should read. It’s to me, but I think it’s better suited to you.”
His frankness has my mouth dropping open. “You read Mum’s diaries, the entries she wrote to you?”
