Mason's POV
"Why the hell are you calling at this ungodly hour?" I croak into the speaker. "Wait, why are you calling at this hour?"
Max doesn't even wake up early for school.
"I've got news. Is Maya around?"
"She's in her room, all the way upstairs. Why do you..." I sigh, the tiredness weighing down on my eyes.
"Oh, yeah, of course..." He mutters.
"You have news?" I try to sit up on the bed.
"It's about The Man."
All the remnants of sleep from my eyes disappear. I straighten up as my hand searches for the switch of the bedside lamp.
"What?" The room becomes illuminated.
"He and Ace had a visitor. No one knows what happened but Ace stabbed her. She's in critical condition."
"What?" My eyes widen and my chest constricts.
Why the hell did he want Maya to hear to this.
"I'm not sure about the full story but apparently she made a mistake that exposed The Man for everything he's been doing while behind bars."
She?
"I don't understand."
"Neither do I. It's crazy that Ace would do something like that, I mean, The Man is very careful. This just took any chance he had of parole and tossed it out the window."
I mean, The Man can still get out of this one safe. Ace takes the fall, he's left with the other charges which he might be able to avoid.
"Anywho," Max continues, "I think you'll be the least of his worries from now on."
"Good." I sigh and lean my head against the wall, sighing.
"He'll be going on trial soon and probably for a while so we can stop worrying."
So this is why he wanted Maya to hear this.
"Yeah." I nod. "All this chaos is good for us. I just feel sorry for whoever the girl is. Do you think it's someone we know?"
"I don't know. It can't be someone we've worked with for a while though; Ace wouldn't do that to them."
"Please," I scowl, "he's got loose screws."
"Well, I don't think we should worry too much about it. Whoever it is, she chose to work with The Man knowing the dangers."
Maybe she didn't. Maybe she was lured, threatened. Maybe her parents had a huge debt they couldn't repay.
"Anyway, I gotta go back to bed."
"Yeah, thanks for letting me know about this."
***
I've wanted to tell Maya and my mother what Max told me the whole day. Angie and Ollie have been with us the entire time so I couldn't. I know that Ollie is very well aware of my past and our connection to The Man but it's still not something I want to deliberately expose him to.
Angie? She's a child. She might not understand but she won't miss the tension and fear. It's the holidays, I want to protect that toothless smile on her face.
My mother went to a meeting and I'm waiting in the garage for Ollie. I've managed to put the news of the trial at the back of my mind.
"Mason." The soft voice calling my name cases me to turn around.
"Maya."
She stands at the door, a small smile on her face.
"What are you doing?" She approaches me.
"Hmm, nothing. I'm waiting for Ollie so I can kick his ass."
"Aww, a bonding session." She coos.
"It's not a bonding session, I'm showing him that I'm the best in the ring."
She narrows her eyes at me and smiles.
"Your mother told me some boy from the neighbourbood has been training him. Are you jealous?"
"If course I'm jealous. He starts boxing and I'm not the one to teach him, some punk is."
"Hey, this punk sounds very considerate. He has to be a nice guy to give him time to Ollie."
"I was expecting a 'oh, he can't be even half as good as you are. He's wasting Ollie's time'. Something along those lines." I pout.
"He sounds like a halfwit." She wrinkles her nose and shakes her head disapprovingly and I laugh.
In all honesty, it's a bit comforting that Ollie has found something he likes and there's someone helping him. I can't always be around and I know mom worries about him a lot.
She doesn't admit it but I know it's mostly the fear of the past repeating itself.
I just want to meet this guy and find out what kind of person he is.
Her eyes shift as she focuses on something to my far right. I notice she's looking at the first aid kit before she stretches out her arm to grab it.
"Are you hurt?"
"No," she shakes her head, "I just want to try something.
A smile, half shy and half excited, forms on her face.
She softly takes my hand and takes out the bandage from the first aid kit. She unrolls it and slowly begins to wrap it around my hand, occasionally glancing up at me. She smiles shyly each time our eyes meet.
I'll never get tired of seeing her smile or of her shy reactions.
I watch her as she slowly and carefully covers my right hand with the bandage.
"Where did you learn how to do this?" I ask, stretching my fingers out once she's done with my hand.
"I actually just came across a picture of it on my Pinterest." She beams and looks up at me. "I remembered that, oh, my boyfriend is a boxer."
"A darn good one." I grin and lift my chin up.
"Ah," she rolls her eyes and smiles, "the modesty."
"Right?" I grin before swiftly leaning in and kissing her cheek.
"Stop." She giggles, trying to move her face away, a second too late.
I remain still as she finishes putting the bandage on my other hand.
"All done." She smiles.
"Thank you." I reply softly.
I get up and put on my gloves.
"Did you bring a book?" I ask as I approach the punching bag.
"No, why?" Maya asks behind me.
"I assumed you'd read whilst I train, so you don't get bored."
"Hmm," she shrugs, "I was just gonna watch."
"Creep." I smile and she sticks her tongue out at me.
"Besides, you'll be with Ollie. I'm going to your mom's store to help our Niran."
"What? You're leaving me?" I pout, my arms falling to my sides.
"I'm not leaving you..." She smiles and shakes her head before whispering, "such a baby."
"Your baby." I smile and she rolls her eyes, hiding her smile.
"Try not to miss me so much." She turns around.
"You're leaving? What about a kiss?"
She turns around to face me again. She pouts her lips and blows me a kiss.
"Do you want me to drive you?"
"No," she shakes her head, "I'll take a cab."
"Are you sure?" She nods.
A few seconds after she walks out, Ollie comes in.
"Are you ready?" He asks with an excited grin.
"Pshh! I'm always ready."
"Why are your hands bandaged. I thought we were just sparring."
I look down and my hands, closing them into fists and opening them again.
"For intimidation purposes." I smirk.
It's not for intimidating anyone. I wasn't going to tell Maya that what she was doing was unnecessary. I liked it. She looked cute trying to look like she knew what she was doing.
"You? You don't intimidate me." He matches my smirk. "You've lost your touch, old tricks and all."
"Ol...old tric..." I dramatically gasp. "Alright! Let's cut the chit chat and see what you've got."
***
I wait for Maya to finish helping a customer before making her way over to the back. She pulls out the wooden chair opposite mine and sits down.
"What did you want to tell me?"
I came to fetch her. I decided it would be a good idea to tell her now. I'll tell my mom later on.
"I got a call from Max this morning."
I've been looking up Lancaster Prison, Mark Coleman and Ace Nelson the entire day. Sure enough, the media has been having a field day. The public is eating the story up whole, not a single crumb in sight.
It's not as shocking as they make it seem. What's so shocking about a notorious criminal who hid himself in society as a genuine businessman and single father doing more crime?
"You haven't seen anything on the news or any articles?"
"Uhm no..." Creases form on her forehead.
"Okay," I nod and release a heavy sigh, "I'll get straight to the point."
"Is it good news or..."
"G... Good news."
We're not in danger of The Man, it's good news for us.
"The Man will soon be going to trial. I don't know who but someone was clearly still keeping an eye on him and they found out everything about him. He's got bigger problems than finding out where I am or who I'm with. I think we can at least enjoy the rest of this year without worrying about him."
Her eyes widen from the surprise, she sighs with relief and finally, sits back on the chair in silence.
"That is good news." A small, relieved smile.
"I think the only people this could be bad for are Mary, because well, I guess he's still her dad and whoever got stabbed."
"Wh... What?" Her eyes widen and she nervously gulps. "Someone got stabbed?"
"Hmm... Some girl." I nod. She doesn't respond for a while and I find myself staring at the fairy lights hanging from the long bookshelves.
"Who was it?"
"Who?" I jerk my head in her direction.
"The girl."
"I don't know. Max thought it wasn't important either so I don't think he asked around."
She nods and looks down, her face wrinkled from the deep thinking. She folds her arms.
"Shelly?"
"Hmm?"
"Do you think it could be her?"
"I..."
I don't know. For some reason, her name hadn't crossed my mind. I guess it still hasn't clicked that she agreed to something like that.
"You said the girl made a mistake and that's why Mark Coleman got exposed. Shelly is new to all of that, there's a higher chance that she could make a mistake."
"You're right." It all registers in my mind now.
The wrinkles on her forehead deepen and she scrunches her nose further. She begins to uncomfortably rub her arms and look around aimlessly.
"Hey, hey," she looks up at me, "it's okay."
She nods.
"It's okay."
I push back the chair and stand up. She mirrors my action and a second, later, I engulf her in a hug.
"Don't worry. I'll find out who the girl is."
"Okay." She whispers, nodding against my chest.
***
Maya's POV
Surprisingly, it took longer to find out who the stabbing victim is. You'd think with every news outlet following the Mark Coleman case, someone would've gotten a name by now.
"We finally have a name."
Luckily, people in this business talk- a lot. Right now, we're on the phone with Max and Bianca. They were able to find out who it is.
I haven't been able to reach Shelly; she changed her number, of course and sending a DM asking her if she got stabbed by any chance in the past few days just didn't seem appropriate.
Luckily, I was able to get in touch with her mother. She informed me that an emergency call forced Shelly on a plane back to Canada approximately five days prior to our conversation.
I'm so relieved it's not anyone I know.
"It's Charlotte." Bianca's voice comes from the speaker of the phone.
Mason and I stop, our hands midair, stuck in whatever motion they were in.
"What?" I bring the bowl of popcorn down onto the coffee table. My now empty hands reach for the phone placed in the center.
"Yeah, the victim wasn't a girl. It was a petite woman in her mid thirties; Charlotte Aubert."
"Wow!"
That's all I can manage. I sit down on the floor, my mouth hanging open. Charlotte is someone I know, well, knew. We weren't close or anything but it's still so shocking to hear this.
"What was she doing there?" Mason asks.
"Remember the boyfriend in prison?" Bianca asks and Mason and I simultaneously nod. "It was Mr. Coleman."
So she has a thing for bad boys?
Maya!
"That's terrible. How can he let his own girlfriend get hurt?"
"He was using her." Mason shakes his head. "Whatever mistake she made, he wasn't going to forgive her."
"Damn..." I rest my back against the couch, resting my hands on my sides.
"Yeah but while all of that is sad, this is still good news for us." Max remarks.
"Max!" Bianca hisses.
"What? What? Am I wrong?"
Mason shrugs before looking at me. I shrug as well.
I'm not going to lie, I'm beyond relieved about this. Not the Charlotte part, no that's very sad. I'm relieved that Mark Coleman will probably never see the light of day. If all goes well, this trial will distract him long enough for him to forget about Mason for a while.
"Who are you guys talking to?" Ollie asks as he walks into the room.
"Maya! Maya!" Angie follows behind him, skipping excitedly while holding up a CD of "The Tooth Fairy 2" in her hands.
"No, no..." Ollie groans once she hands it to me. "I swear that gave me nightmares the last time I watched it."
Fun fact; one of the meanings of the name Charlotte means "petite". I found this out a second after deciding on using the word to describe her😂.
Anywho, the book is coming to an end. I'm not sure how many chapter are left. Could be two, three, I'm not sure but it's definitely nearing it's end😭. It's been a long journey.