When The Mask Falls

Bella didn't speak during the entire drive back.

She didn't cry.

She didn't look at Monroe. The silence was heavy.

All she could see in her mind was that photograph. Her sister, Emily in a red dress and Mason behind her, they were laughing with Michael Lang. Mason. The man who claimed he never knew Lang… who swore he had nothing to do with her sister's past.

A lie.

A big one.

When they reached the apartment, she went inside first.

Mason was in the kitchen, sipping coffee from the white mug in his hand. His shirt sleeves were rolled up. He looked up and smiled until he saw her face.

"What happened?" he asked, stepping forward. You don't look good". 

Bella pulled out the photograph from her bag and dropped it on the table.

The moment Mason saw the photograph, he froze.

Bella's voice was quiet. Too quiet. "Tell me what this is." She asked authoritatively in a low tone.

He stared at the photograph for a long time. Long enough that Monroe stepped in, looking tense and watchful.

Finally, Mason sat down.

"I wasn't lying. Not completely. I didn't know Lang well."

Bella blinked. "You said you had never met him. You told me you don't know him. You are a liar" She said calmly.

Mason's eyes were tired. "I lied."

There was a short silence.

"I was at the gala for investors," he continued. "It was months before Emily moved into the manor. I didn't even know she knew him.She didn't tell me. I was there because my company had just gotten acquired and Lang was one of the stakeholders. I had to smile and shake hands and make good conversation with a lot of powerful people that night."

Bella's voice cracked. "So you were one of them right? " She asked, looking at him in the eyes.

"No," he said quickly. "I didn't know what he was doing. Or what he did to her. If I had—" His voice broke off. "If I'd known, I would have—"

"What?" she snapped. "Saved her? Protected her? Like you said you would?"

He looked up, wounded. "I loved her."

Bella stepped back, her hands shaking. "Then why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I was ashamed," he whispered. "Because the night she died, I had a missed call from her… and I never called her back."

---

Monroe watched them, his eyes narrowed.

"This changes things," he said. "That gala was hosted by the Lang Foundation. If Mason was in that circle—even briefly, it means someone could try to use him. Or frame him for what he knows nothing about "

Bella turned to Monroe. "Or he is part of it."

"No," Mason said. "I'm not. I know I've lied before. So I'll understand if you don't believe me now."

He stood up, moved to the window, ran a hand through his hair.

"I came back because I thought I could make peace with what happened. Help you find answers. But I should've told you everything from the start. I should have told you everything "

Bella crossed her arms. "Why did Emily call you that night? I want to know"

Mason looked over his shoulder, his voice sounds raw. "She said she found something. She was scared. I told her I'd come over the next morning. I was very tired that day. I thought it could wait."

Bella turned away. She doesn't want him to see the tears in her eyes.

---

The next day, Bella woke up with one thought in her head:

They were all hiding something. Everyone involved.

Mason. Monroe. Becker. Lang. Even Emily.

And now, she had to figure out which one of them was still lying.

She opened her sister's journal again, reading the last full entry.

> "If anything happens to me, I want Bella to know I tried. I wanted to fix it. I wanted to walk away from the life they gave me. But secrets don't die easy. And neither do powerful men."

Underneath the entry, something was scrawled hastily.

> "Key. Orion. 3B."

Bella narrowed her eyes. It wasn't part of the original handwriting. It was written in a hurry.

She grabbed her phone and did a quick search on it.

Orion Storage. Unit 3B. Just twenty minutes from the manor.

She didn't tell Mason or Monroe.

Maybe not yet.

---

At the Orion Storage facility, Bella paid for temporary access to the unit listed under "E. Harrow." The woman behind the desk asked her no questions.

When the rusted metal door slid open, dust swirled in the sunlight.

Inside was a small black lock box. A chair. A half-empty bottle of water. A wool blanket.

It looked like someone had stayed here.

She opened the lock box slowly.

Inside the lock box, there was a USB drive. A second envelope. And a burner phone.

The phone was dead, but the drive still had a tag on it: "Gala Footage – Nov. 7"

Bella's hands trembled as she opened the envelope.

Inside was a handwritten confession. From a doctor. A fertility specialist. Signed, stamped and dated.

It was addressed to Emily… and it explained how a secret program, funded by Lang's charity, had illegally harvested eggs from young women, Emily among them. Including genetic tampering. Trial drugs. Bribes to silence nurses and erase records.

Bella backed up, nearly knocking over the chair.

This… this was what Emily had found.

This was what they were willing to kill for.

And Mason had been at the gala where the whole thing got started.

---

That night, Bella returned to the apartment quietly.

Mason was asleep on the couch, one arm draped over his face.

She sat beside him quietly without waking him up.

She watched him breathe.

Then, carefully, she slipped the USB drive and the envelope into her bag.

And kept her mouth shut.

Not because she trusted him again.

But because she needed to find out if Mason Cole was still lying, if he was still hiding some information from her.