Chapter 43

Mason’s POV

The room is quiet, almost too quiet. Not tense, not cold, just suspended. Like the calm that lingers after a storm when the winds have stopped howling but the world still hasn’t settled. Harper sits wrapped in one of our thick fleece blankets, her bare feet tucked beneath her, her body curled up at one end of the long sectional. Her hair is damp from the shower Theo helped her with, still slightly tangled at the ends. She’s warm, freshly dressed in one of Nathan’s soft shirts and a pair of her own shorts. She looks like something soft and breakable left in our care.

She hasn’t said much. None of us have, really. Not since we brought her back out from the bedroom and into the sitting room. She needed quiet. We all did.

Nathan sits beside her, giving her space but staying close enough that if she leans, she’ll find his shoulder. Theo an