Mason's POV
For a moment, none of us speaks. The tension is real, heavy, but underneath it all is something else. A quiet kind of hope. A belief that maybe this time, we’ll get through to her. That maybe, if she sees that we’re not trying to own her or control her, but protect her, she’ll let herself stay. On her own terms.
Because if this weekend is going to mean anything, if it’s going to be real, it has to start with her choosing it for herself.
“I think I did good,” Theo announces, with that familiar self-satisfied look that never fails to stir up the worst kind of dread in me.
I turn and stare at him, not even trying to hide my disbelief. “How do you figure that? You broke multiple rules, Theo. You actually broke the law.”
He shrugs as if that detail is irrelevant. “I didn’t drag
