Chapter 175

Prologue MASON—AGE 21, NEW YEAR’S EVE Itug at the collar of my shirt. It’s stifling, sitting here in this room while we’re pretending everything is still … normal. When nothing will ever feel normal again. I glance around the room at my four brothers, wishing I could read their minds. Surely they all feel this too. It can’t only be me who feels as though it’s all kinds of fucking wrong to be doing this without her. Elijah and Nathan stare at the fireworks through the window, watching the rest of the world celebrate when we’re stuck here, in this mausoleum to her memory. Even Maddox, a party animal who can keep up with any one of us despite being the youngest, is staring at his drink like he has no idea what to do with it. Unable to bear the suffocating tension a second longer, I speak up. “Does anyone else feel like it’s weird that it’s just us?” “We could put the TV on. Watch the ball drop,” Elijah suggests. Drake shakes his head emphatically and reminds us all how she used to hate w