"Has she ever taken someone you loved?" he asks me.
I draw my head back and look him in the eye.
I'm astonished, you know?
It's like this guy is so attuned to how I think. He knows me on a deeper level.
I mean, I didn't even tell you some of the things that Mom has done to me. But he seems to know just by holding me.
"Never anyone I loved," I tell him, speaking softly. "She never gave me a chance to fall in love."
Mason's quiet as I think back to the litany of relationships that Mom has reveled in ruining for me.
"My senior year in high school, on the night I thought was going to be magical, I walked in on her giving my prom date a blowjob on my bed," I recount, my eyes glazing over. "When I walked in she just looked at me and told me she was busy and would I mind waiting in the living room."
Mason is silent, holding me as I think back to my interactions with Mom.
"She's broken up every relationship I've ever had," I say to him. "I never brought a guy home from college because she'd seduce them. I knew. So instead, she would visit me at school."
I think back to those days, still relatively recent. Mom showing up in my dorm with a short skirt and tight blouse. Enticing all the guys. Ruining them for me.
"She knows exactly how I feel about it," I tell Mason. "I've told her before. But she doesn't care. She does it to hurt me. Because she sees my Dad in me. She keeps me around and hurts me to get back at him."
I would continue, but Mason pulls me closer.
"She'll never hurt you again, baby girl,” he tells me, kissing my forehead. "Not while I'm here with you."
You remember how I told you I believed Mason when he told me he'd never touch Mom again?
Well, I believe him now too.
Especially when he brings his mouth closer to my face and kisses my forehead then pulls back to look at me.
"I promise you," are his only words.
At some point, I'm going to have to start trusting him, aren't I?
It would be weird if I didn't.
Because I'm already starting to fall in love with him, you know?
We lie there a long time, quietly, until eventually I fall asleep in his arms.
13
MarketWatch Journal Flash Update
In an unexpected twist to the drama already surrounding Wall Street bad boy Mason Kane, inside sources claim that he is now the subject of an internal power struggle that may lead to a vote of no confidence at the next shareholder meeting.
According to sources who requested anonymity because they are close to the situation, Mason Kane has repeatedly disregarded potentially lucrative investment advice that would have significantly added to the revenues of Kane Price.
While no set vote of no confidence has been scheduled yet, it's enough to have spooked both investors and clients. Kane Price stock tumbled 10% on the news as rumors spread that the Firm's clients were pulling their money out. As yet, no high-profile names have announced any withdrawals or liquidations from the bank, but many are worried that further bad publicity will prompt them to do so.
Kane Price has been in the news quite a few times recently, first with the antics of Mason Kane, who was caught in a compromising sexual position with a television reporter during the time of broadcast, that sparked outrage among moral conservatives, and then more recently as Mason Kane announced a whirlwind engagement and marriage to noted shareholder activist Lorna Lowell.
Many have speculated that Mr. Kane, who styles himself the King of Wall Street, has married Lorna in an effort to repair his tarnished image. However those people also point out that at the same time as marrying Lorna, he has elevated her to a position of great confidence—that of Chief Investment Counsel for the entire Kane Price firm.
In her role, it is the now Mrs. Lorna Kane who is advising on special investments designed to increase th