Omniscient Narrator:
Things between Mason and Paige have not been in the best of ways, a sexual tension has been growing between them since they started this marriage. As much as they tried to pass it off as friendship, they both have feelings that don't correspond to a simple sibling relationship.
Paige realized this, since she found out she has been avoiding Mason, at least at home. She's afraid of doing something crazy being out of her five senses.
Mason is blinded in that he only sees her as a sister, when she is far from that.
Peyton has been staying close to Mason, has been harping on him about working at the company. That has been a topic of discussion between the two. Mason explains to her and has explained to her in many ways and several times that he can't do something like that, because it can create problems in his marriage.
This issue has him stressed enough, he doesn't understand where the Peyton who understood him without reproach, who supported him in everything, has left him. Every day that passes he feels that the love he felt for Peyton is not the same, plus the confusion he has for what he feels for his wife.
Two months have passed since the day Peyton arrived as a surprise, two months in which Paige and Mason's relationship is becoming more distant every day, even Emily has realized that things are not right.
Emily is worried that when the three years are over, they will separate and she will not see Paige again, who in this time has become very fond of her, she is a daughter to her, the daughter she could not have. She loves her son, but she notices that he is distracted and working more than he should, when he doesn't need to when he doesn't need to.
As a mother, she knows her son and knows there is something bothering him, so she is determined to find out, and she has help in the office. She is sure that with one phone call she can find out everything, but that would get her friend, Mason's secretary, in trouble, so she chooses to go to see him without even telling her friend, to prevent her from telling her son. She waits for it to be time to leave and enters the company with a smile, greeting everyone as they leave.
He goes upstairs to the office that formerly belonged to his father and now belongs to his son. The secretary has already left her post, so he goes forward, and the door is ajar. She hears the voice of her son and of a woman, which is not Paige. Curiosity gets the better of her and she approaches the door, not knowing what she was about to find out.
Inside the office was Mason with Peyton, as she came to see him almost every day with the excuse that she missed him.
"It's been a long time since you slept with me. Don't you realize how much I miss you?" the woman's voice complains.
"Love, you know I can't..." Mason replies.
She places a hand on her heart, feeling the pain of knowing that her son has a lover, regardless of the contract. She didn't raise him to be like this.
"You don't want it to be different. You no longer love me like before. You're distant and you get angry with me. You don't please me like you used to," the woman complains.
Emily clenches her fists, angry about the situation. However, she doesn't step forward to interrupt the conversation. On the contrary, she sits in the secretary's chair, waiting for the woman to leave so she can talk to her son alone. She doesn't hear what else they say as they move away.
Meanwhile, in the office, Mason runs his hand through his hair, frustrated by how demanding Peyton is becoming. She wasn't like this. He watches her with a serious expression, about to ask her to leave, when she removes her coat, revealing that she's not wearing anything underneath.
Like most men, Mason loses track of his thoughts and lets out the animal inside him.
They end up having sex, and Mason doesn't even realize what has happened. Outside the office, the moans of Peyton can be heard. What he doesn't suspect is that she did it deliberately, so that if his wife were to come, she would hear him with another woman.
Indignant with what is happening, Emily gets up and can't bear her son's audacity. She knocks loudly on the door to stop them from their act.
Inside the office, Mason stops and moves away as if a magnet is repelling him. Emily doesn't wait for him to open the door; she does it herself, finding Peyton with her coat unbuttoned and Mason breathing heavily while fixing his pants.
Mason is shocked to see his mother; he never thought it would be her who would catch him.
"Mother," he tries to say something.
"Don't you dare call me that. You have disappointed me like I never thought you would. Get out of here before I lose what little patience I have left," Emily says to a bewildered Peyton.
"I apologize for the way we met, ma'am," Peyton responds, feeling ashamed.
"This is the only time we will see each other, there's no doubt about that," Emily replies to Peyton.
"Mom, let me explain things to you," Mason insists, embarrassed. "There's an explanation for everything, just listen to me," Mason says, taking his mother's hand.
Emily withdraws her hand from her son's touch, turns around, and slaps him on the cheek, then says angrily,
"I didn't raise you to be like this. I never believed you capable of doing something like this right under Paige's nose. At the very least, you should be careful about where and when, not to mention who you do it with. I expected more from you," Emily manages to say before tears start rolling down her face.
On her way to her car, she thinks about all the dreams she had for this marriage. When she first met Paige, she thought Mason could fall in love with her, that she was the perfect woman for her son. But she never expected that he would be involved with another girl, and she wonders how long it has been going on. She remembers that Paige confronted her because Mason didn't stay with her anymore, while he used to. That part keeps spinning in her head.
Just as I discovered it, Paige might have too. She might already know... It could be so many things, and I have been living in a lie, in this facade that everyone believes our marriage is.