Page 135 of Mason

No beeping machines. No hallway noise. Justthat silence—heavy, suffocating, the kind that hums like the air right before a storm breaks.

He stares at me like I just cut him open.

His mouth opens, then closes again. His jaw ticks. He swallows like the truth is caught somewhere between his chest and his throat, refusing to come out clean.

And I see it—all of it.

The war in his head. The panic. The truth he's been shoving down so deep for so long, it’s calcified inside him.

Then finally, with a sharp exhale, he drags a hand through his hair and looks away.

“I don’t know,” he says. Quiet. Hoarse.

The ache in my chest twists into something sharp. Something that feels a hell of a lot like heartbreak.

“You don’t know?” I repeat, and it comes out small. Hurt. Hollow.

He turns back to me, eyes burning. “No. I just know I fucking do.”

His voice fractures on the last word.

And just like that, I fall apart.

The tears come hot and fast, trailing down my cheeks before I can even pretend to stop them. I hate it.God, I hate it.

He leans forward fast, like the sight of me crying physically hurts him.

“Don’t do that,” he says, voice rough.

“Do what?”

“Cry.” His hands tremble before he fists them tight in his lap, like he’s afraid they’ll betray him and reach for me. “I can handle getting shot. I can handle being hunted. I can even handle walking into a fucking explosion. But I can’t… Ican’twatch you cry, Shelby.”

I laugh, but it’s the worst kind—wet, bitter, and cracked down the middle.

“I don’t even know what’s happening here, Mason.”

“Neither do I.”

He says it like a confession. Like an apology.

The silence grows again, but it’s different now—less threatening, more… exposed. Like we’re standing on opposite cliffs, waiting to see who jumps first.

I should wait. I should let him be the one.

But I’m sotiredof silence.

So I leap.

“But I think I love you.”

His breath catches. He actually stops breathing for a second, like the words knocked every ounce of air from his lungs. His eyes are wide, stunned, wild.

And something in the air between usshifts.

Like the storm finally breaks.

Like the ground’s about to give way beneath us.

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