Chapter 75. What If

Mason’s POV

Max hadn’t even got time to say a word.

He simply stood there, wineglass in his hand, city lights reflected behind his weary face. I simply stood there and gazed at him as he tried to understand what I was trying to tell him.

“So you are insisting I tell her the truth?” he said at last, his fingers tightening against the glass in his hands.

I rested back on the couch.”I believe that is the best option. Ava does not need you to protect her from afar. She needs someone to stand by her and protect her, So has Sophie.”

He backed away from me, his scowl slicing. The unapologetic nakedness in his eyes was difficult to read. “I thought I was doing the right thing,” he said to me. “Protecting them from all of it. Parker. Me.”

I nodded. “That would have done it in a perfect world. This world is falling apart at the seams, Max. Being away from them doesn’t shield them. It just makes them that much more vulnerable.”

He spread out ove