Mason's POV

Layla Thornfield. The name echoes in my mind like a distant bell tolling from a past I’d buried deep. I haven’t heard it spoken aloud in years—maybe decades. Can it really be the same woman I’m thinking of? The one whose presence lingered in memories both sweet and painful? The woman who somehow, without me fully realizing, shaped the course of so many lives entwined around mine?

My thoughts immediately turn to Brittany, who stood before me this ...