He looks at me with his sad, big, brown eyes. “Is that true? About our parents?”

“It—I—” Nothing I can say can make this right. Everything is going to shit and I’m losing control of everything. “Brian was supposed to tell you. I’m sorry, Mason . . .”

The look of extreme betrayal and hurt on his face makes me stop any other excuses I could’ve come up with. He’s looking at me like he’s never seen me before. Like he’s disgusted by the person standing in front of him.

A quick glance at Annalisa tells me that she regrets letting that slip, but she gets over it quickly and squares her shoulders.

“How long have you known?” Mason asks, looking between me and Annalisa.

My voice comes out small. I feel like shrinking into myself. “I found out when we left for the beach house.”

Mason looks stunned. “We lived together for two weeks, and you looked at me every day knowing the truth and still decided not to tell me? You’ve been lying to me for over a month.”

“I didn’t want to hurt you.” I feel like I’m grasping at air, clawing at nothing and praying for a miracle.

“Yeah, well, you failed.”

My heart shatters into a million pieces.

He shoves his feet into his boots and throws open the door, leaving before I have a chance to say anything else. I watch him go, and feel tears drip down my face. I didn’t want this to happen, I never wanted this to happen. This is the whole reason I’d put off telling him, because I didn’t want him to look at me with that heartbroken and betrayed face, didn’t want him to hate me—though part of me knew it was inevitable, that I was putting off something that was destined to happen no matter how he found out.

“That was uncalled for, Anna.” I hear Aiden chiding her. “Do you know how badly you just hurt him?”

“I probably shouldn’t have said that, but he needed to know anyway. You’ve been lying about Mason’s dad, and you’ve been lying about the twins. What else have you been lying about?”

I swipe the tears from my face and turn away from staring into the dark after Mason. I’m tempted to say “Everything,” because I have been lying about everything. What would she say if she found out my name isn’t even Amelia? Julian, Chase, Noah, and Charlotte are standing off to the side, frozen, not knowing what’s going on. We’ve never had a fight before. Aiden moves to stand in front of me, as if physically blocking Annalisa from looking at me will help the shattering of my heart.

“I think you should leave, Anna.” Aiden crosses his arms, leaving no room for argument.

Annalisa squares her shoulders. “Not until you promise to go to the cops and tell them that Jason and Jackson killed Greg.”

Aiden would never do that; it’s like she doesn’t know him. He’s going to protect his brothers at all costs or die trying.