Page 49

Ticktock.
It’s a bomb, not a clock.
Ticktock.
It’s about time to go off.
Ticktock.
Prepare for the shock.
Ticktock.
It’s the truth to unlock.
Istand facing the window in my father’s office with my hands behind my back and don’t bother turning around to greet him as the door opens. I watch as my cold gray eyes narrow in the reflection. The city traffic below is stirring with life, but it’s silent up here. So many people surround us, but not one of them can save me. Not one of them would even give a fuck.
Julia would.My sweetheart.Or at least she would have days ago before she realized she needed to get away from me.
“Mason,” my father says and I turn around, finally facing him and knowing I need to confront him along with everything else I’ve been running from. As much as I want to hold Jules close and pretend just being with her will make this right, I know it won’t.
“Father,” I say, greeting him with an icy tone in my voice, hating that I’m even related to this man. I stare into his eyes and see my own. Everything about him reminds me of what I’m becoming. I fucking hate it.
“We need to get over this,” my father says and gestures between the two of us.
“We do.” I clench my jaw, my pulse rushing faster. I rip my gaze away from his, staring down at my hands. “I don’t think there should be any more ties.” It pains me to tell him that. Even after all these years and everything he’s done, I still feel a gaping hole in my chest at the thought of severing this relationship.
“Ties to what?” he asks.
“Between the two of us.”
My father flinches as if I’ve struck him. But what did he expect?
“Watch your mouth,” he says. I’m surprised he has the nerve to admonish me as if what I’m saying is unspeakable.
“I want to walk away. I don’t want to be tied to this anymore. I don’t want to be associated with you.”
“I’m your father, Mason. You can’t walk away from that.”
The fuck I can’t.I bite down on my tongue to stop from blurting out that answer, gritting my teeth as he walks closer to the left side of the desk. I walk to the right, matching his pace, a careful dance of power that escalates the conversation.
“You need to just forgive?—”
“I’ll never forgive you for what you did to Avery,” I say, looking my father in the eye as I say her name for the first timein months. Every muscle in me is wound tightly, waiting for his next move so I can destroy him and let out this rage.
His eyes flash with something—anger, maybe betrayal, I don’t know what.
“I did what I had to do to protect you,” he says, pushing out the words from between clenched teeth, but his nerve is shaken, unlike mine.
“She didn’t deserve to be murdered.” My hands ball into fists. Avery was a mistake. A fiery redhead with long legs and a smile that could kill. She hadmistakewritten all over her.
I met her late one night at an event and I knew she was trouble. I knew it from the start but I needed a quick fuck. She tempted me and I took the bait. But I could never have imagined how it would all end.
“That’s what happens when you blackmail a Thatcher.” My father practically spits. “She decided to roll the dice. She’s the one who came to me with demands and tried to back us into a corner.”
“You could have sent her to me.” My muscles twitch with the need to pound my fist into his face as I take a step forward. “I would have told her the baby couldn’t have been mine.”
“If I’d known then?—”