Chapter Forty

Chapter Forty
When I reentered the fray of the main ballroom, all thoughts of my own problems instantly disappeared when I looked up to see Mason standing in the open doorway of another side parlor. More precisely, when I saw the look on his beautiful face.

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A tall man with equally dark hair to Mason was standing with his back to me, wearing a handsome navy blue suit.
The two men were facing off against each other in the wide doorway, it looked like, and when the unknown man shifted, I caught a good look at his face. He was handsome, and the resemblance between the two men was unmistakable, only the slightly taller, slightly older looking man had dark blue eyes, like their mother’s, instead of brown like Mason’s.
It registered with me instantly when I looked upon that face. To be fair, I had also seen plenty of family pictures around the house.
Mason looked more like his father, I had noticed in a family portrait of all four of the Blacksteeles; he had Richard’s kind brown eyes. But Colter...Colter’s eyes were cold, like Claudia’s.

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I hesitated to approach the two intimidating men. Together they were like Titans; they seemed somehow larger than life to me.
What halted me from coming any closer, though, were the harsh words I could hear Mason softly whispering to his brother.
Colter scoffed openly, then his phone began to ring from his jacket pocket. He pulled it out, frowned at the screen, then turned on his heel and strode away as he answered the phone.
I watched him go, understanding beginning to dawn.
So that’s how it was, was it?

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Mason approached me with a sad smile a moment later. “I’ll introduce you when he comes back. My brother’s a busy guy.” Mason said wearily, hands in his pockets. “It’s funny.” He grunted, but his ashen face didn’t look like he thought it was funny at all. “I haven’t seen him in over a year, and I wasn’t even able to talk to him for five minutes before we got in a fight and then he walked away to answer his phone...in fact, I think that’s exactly how our last conversation ended.”
“Mason...”
He looked down into my eyes and suddenly his gaze, his whole face, hardened.
I could tell he didn’t want my pity right then so I sagely diverged from what I’d been going to say.
“Mason, we have a problem. Your mom knows.”