“Does she have to for you to know she needs you?”
Fuck.
His words are a sharp insult wrapped in glass, cutting as deep as he intended, because no. She doesn’t. That was part of the beauty of us. Her pain was mine as mine was hers. We never needed words to know the other was hurting… but she doesn’t remember that.
I face forward. “She doesn’t remember me, Mason.”
He says nothing for so long, I half expect he’s walked away, but when I turn around, he’s still standing in the same spot.
His lips press into a firm line. “I saw the message she sent you. The one from that night.”
My eyes narrow, small pricks drawing my shoulders up tight. “You read our private conversations?”
“No.” He stands tall, unapologetic. “I didn’t, but I would have if I felt like I needed to. What I did do was take her busted-up phone down to the store, got her a new one and had them flash everything from the old one over. Had to open it up to make sure it worked before they trashed it. Her message to you was the last thing she touched on that phone.”
My chest clenches as I stare at him.
“That’s why you came home that night.” He moves closer. “To come get her. To tell her you love her, too. Right? You love her too?”
Grinding my teeth, I go to push past him. “I’m not having this conversation with you.”
Mason slides in front of me, brows caved. He’s angry, but it’s more than that. The inability to protect the one person he’s spent his life protecting is eating him up.
I know the feeling.
The only two people I have ever had in my life I couldn’t protect.
Mason shakes his head, admitting, “I don’t know why, but in the back of my mind, I told myself my sister cared for you but being with you was her way of doing what she could to be happy while she secretly held on to something else.”
“You mean someone else. There’s no reason not to say his name.” I throw his hand off of me.
“So you do know everything that happened with her and him?”
“Why do you think I gave her space in the first place? Why do you think I pulled back?” I don’t give him time to answer. “It was because he suddenly realized what he was losing and knew he had to at least try. It took him months, years really, to see what I saw the minute I met her, and I can’t even fucking blame him, because the fifty-fifty chance is worth the risk if it ends with her in your arms.”
Mason expression twists. “But she chose you, you know that, so why the hell aren’t you at that hospital where you belong?”
“Because fate stepped in and showed his cards, and I’m not even in the deck, let alone at the bottom of it.”
His jaw ticks angrily, and I glance away.
“Do us both a favor and delete our message thread before you give her the new phone.”
“What, no.” His body tugs backward. “Fuck no. Why you acting like shit’s over? Like it’s done and her memory is gone and not coming back?”
I swallow, the possibility too damn real to stomach. “Maybe it is.”
“Don’t make me knock you out, man.” He glares, his fists clenching at his sides. “What the fuck’s the matter with you? My sister is lost right now, and you give up on her? What kind of shit—”
I’ve got him by the collar, his back slammed against the wall behind us in a split second.
“I will never give up on her.” My body shakes. “Ever.”
“Then what the fuck are you doing getting trashed while she’s barely able to fucking breathe?” he seethes.
“I don’t know!” I admit, the muscles in my neck straining. I tear away from him, running my hands on top of my head until I’m gripping my hair. “I don’t fucking know what I’m doing, man. I don’t know shit. I’m fucking terrified that if I go into that room, I might to do or say something that’ll only make this harder on her, hurt her more, and I couldn’t handle that.”
“You think I’m not?” he rasps, and I bring my eyes back to his. “Trust me, I am, we all are, but she needs… I don’t know what she needs, but it ain’t me. Ain’t Cam or the others. It’s got to be you, man. It has to be.”
Shaking my head, I step around him into the room, his shadow following. “She doesn’t remember us, Mason.”
“I know that.”
“Yeah?” I drop onto the edge of the bed, looking up at him. “Do you know how to tell a woman who thinks she’s only ever been with one man, that you are the father of the child she lost?”