Page 190 of Mason

Me?

I’ve spent years running.

From my past. From my ex. From the life he tried to steal from me.

I’ve lived out of suitcases, stashed emergency cash in the soles of my shoes, learned how to disappear before the fear ever faded.

I’ve kept myself small. Kept quiet. Stayed polite and distant and easy to forget—because being forgotten was safer than beingnoticed.

There wasn’t time for friends. For brunch dates and late-night phone calls and birthday texts.

There was only survival.

Only one foot in front of the other.

Only:Where do I go next? Who can I trust? How long until he finds me again?

And then I landed here.

In the eye of the storm.

In the middle of a family that doesn’t feel real half the time, because how could something this warm, this loud, thisloyalactually exist?

They didn’t just open the door for me—they openedthemselves.

Their homes. Their hearts.

Their messy, brutal, beautiful world.

And they let me in.

Mia, who mothers with fire and protects like a soldier.

Maxine, who sees through bullshit like it’s smoke and cuts through fear like she’s wielding a knife.

Jackie and Tayana and Allegra and Lula—all of them fierce in their own ways, all of them wrapped around me like armor I didn’t know I needed.

They don’t ask me to be fixed. They don’t request perfection.

They don’t tiptoe around my past or treat me like something fragile.

They just...see me.

And theystay.

For the first time in years, I feel like I’ve stopped running.

Like I’ve found ground solid enough to plant something in.

Maybe not roots yet.

But seeds. Hope. The beginning ofsomething.

This family—these women—they’re more than just names in the hierarchy of the Gatti empire.

They’re the blood that keeps it alive.

The spine that holds it upright.

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