Page 98 of The Spare

He works fast, swiping into his phone and clicking a number. "Calling Hendrix." My brows rise at the sound of the phone ringing over the speaker.

"Hey, Mase," Henny answers. "It's good to hear from you. How was your honeymoon?"

"It was amazing, Hendrix, but uh…" Mason trails off, bringing a hand up to scrub down his face. "Hendrix, who's Stephanie?"

"Who?"

"Stephanie."

"Mason, don't be a jerk. You can say the name a million times, and I still won't know what you're talking about. How am I supposed to know? The only Stephanie I know of works in HR at King Dynasty," he pauses. "Fuck," he says in a rough tone. "Am I being blackmailedor something? Goddamn it, Mason. Whatever she's saying, it's not fucking true! Do you hear me?"

Mason sighs, digging his fingers into his eyes and just breathes for a second. My lips tip into a frown and worry fills me at how serious of a situation we're in.

"Mase…." Hendrix says. "Are you okay? What the fuck is going on?"

"No, uh…." Mason scoffs. "Hendrix, I don't know how to tell you this, man..."

There's silence on the phone, and the sound of the door closing loud almost makes me jump. "What happened? Is it Melody?"

"No."

Hendrix pauses. "Is ityou?"

Mason's jaw clenches. "I think we need to get Teresa on the phone, Hendrix."

"Oh my God, Mason." Hendrix bites out a curse. "Well, hurry up! Only you could have my ass cheeks clenched like this."

Mason huffs a humorless laugh, not responding to Hendrix's comment as he works to dial Teresa on speakerphone. It doesn't take long for her to answer.

"Hey, bro," Teresa says brightly, and in my mind's eye I can picture her beaming smile. "How was your honeymoon? Did you have a lot of sex?" she asks suggestively, and I put my hand over my mouth, blushing, but even her ribbing us about fucking doesn't break Mason from his stoic demeanor. He just clears his throat and glances back down at the letter in his hand. "Well, come on, don't be shy. Tell me all about it," she says in a chipper voice. "It's not like I watched you guys do it likeHendrixdid," she cackles, snickering and snorting.

"Hey!"Hendrix butts in, sounding offended."You weren't supposed to tell him that we told you that."

"Hendrix, is that you?What are you doing on the phone?" Teresa says in a shocked voice before going quiet. "Oh my God, whatareyou doing on the phone? We've never had a three way call before. Mason, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay… but we need to have a talk. Melody stumbled across a letter in Uncle William's library. One thatisn'tin Father and Madre's library."

They all go silent for a few seconds before it's broken by Hendrix. "Well?"

"Is it bad?" Teresa asks, concerned. "Can you read it to us?"

"Yeah, it's pretty bad, I think. What are you guys doing this evening?"

"Why?" Hendrix asks hesitantly.

"Because we're probably going to want to go to King compound and talk with Father about this."

My eyes widen as both Hendrix and Teresa curse now.

Mason takes the letter, and in a strong voice, begins to read:

To my sons,

Richard and William,

The past few years have been heartbreaking, yet comforting, knowing that we are now safe together as a family. Even though it was at the expense of your beautiful sister, Stephanie II. Her murder at the hands of your father is something that I don't know I will ever heal from. And though your father pulled the trigger and successfully killed Stephanie, I know that the two of you will forever also bear the memories of him turning the gun on you two as well, and I will carry the weight of that consequence on my soul for the remainder of my life. I couldn't protectStephanie, but I thank God that I was fast enough to save the both of you.

I want to apologize to you both for spending so long under your father's abuse. I thought that you two would be protected from his wrath if I bore the brunt of his stress and ire. I see now that it was the wrong move. I want to take the opportunity to remind you that even though I failed as a King, as a wife, and even many times as a woman, my most hurtful failure, and I believeimpactfulfailure, has unfortunately been my role as your mother. I have failed you three in ways that I don't know if I'll ever be able to make peace with.