The call rang three times before it cut to voicemail.
Lucien stared at the phone in his hand, Mason's name glowing on the screen before fading into black. The dial tone still echoed faintly in his ears, replaced by the hollow silence of the evening crowd around him.
He sighed, slipping the phone into his jacket pocket as he muttered under his breath,
"Why are you mad now?"
I thought you understood me Mason, but each time you show me a side that i dont understand
The words came out smaller than he intended. His voice was almost drowned out by the sound of traffic, laughter, and the distant thrum of music from a nearby café. Every step he took felt heavier than the last. It wasn't just the exhaustion , it was the weight of everything pressing down on him: his father's voice, his own endless attempts to be enough.
"Maybe the only mistake I ever made," his father had said once , sharp, cold, and deliberate "was making an omega."
