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This isn’t your house to welcome us, asshole.

Evan closed his eyes and took a deep breath before pushing forward from behind the stone-still, wide-eyed teenagers. “What are you doing here, Tiago?”

It was indeed his debt collector, owner of Phantom Finance Corporation, Tiago Diaz. And he wore a smile so poorly crafted that Evan almost smiled back with a sneer.

“Tiago,” Celie’s surprised tone sliced through the tension, an unusual warmth etched onto her face. Smiling, she dashed past Evan, right into Tiago’s open arms. She was tiny compared to his massive form, like a baby clinging to their father.

Like a little bird padding into a crocodile’s mouth.

Tiago laughed, wrapping her up in his arms. “Oh, Lord, look at you. You’re growing up way too fast for my liking.”

Evan’s face darkened, eyes fixated on Tiago’s hand that rested on Celie’s shoulders. He patted her head, and she chuckled like a kid being tossed into the air, blindly trusting a pair of hands to catch her.

Celie had grown up thinking Tiago was their father’sfriend, not the boss of the loan sharks who constantly assaulted their father. When their father abandoned them, Celie was flung into a pit of despair and only crawled out when Tiago extended his hand to her. In her mind, she’d already replaced their father with the ginger-headed bastard who worked Evan to his bones ever since their father had disappeared one fine morning. And Tiago had played into that role pretty well.

But the suffering of those years, the humiliating words and unwanted caresses to his body, they were all burdens Evannever wanted his little sister to know he carried. And she never asked. Perhaps she couldn’t tell anything was wrong. Perhaps she didn’t care.

To this day, Celie had no idea who Tiago really was, what crept beneath that gentle parental mask he wore around her. But Evan knew. He knew all too well.

Watching Tiago and Celie mingle, and her friends join too excitedly, Evan’s jaws involuntarily clenched. Anger, resentment, and envy clouded his brain.

Why was he always being thrown to the sidelines when he’d spent most of his life struggling to build a better life for his sister? Why had she never acknowledged it? Why had she never let him pat her head like she let Tiago?

Why exactly was she so repulsed by her own brother?

A hand came to rest on Evan’s shoulder, while simultaneously, another brushed the back of his knuckles, tugging him out of his bitter reverie. Without even looking, Evan knew who those hands belonged to.

Aaron squeezed Evan’s shoulder as he watched a vein surface on his temple. Even though his mind was being controlled by someone else, it seemed there was still a small part of him that was Aaron. The real Aaron.

The hand that brushed Evan’s knuckles lingered, traced, caressed. Slowly, the tension drained from Evan’s body. He tilted his head to glance at Xen, but as usual, he was already looking at him.

Some silent message passed between them, and—as if doused by a calming spell—Evan's tense muscles uncoiled.

He’d mentioned earlier that demons who formed blood contracts with humans could control not just their bodies but their minds too. Maybe Xen was using that power right now. Because how else could just a single look from him silence Evan’s inner turmoil?

“I heard Celie was coming home, so Ihadto pay a visit,” Tiago said, smiling at the kids around him. “I see you’ve brought friends. Even the siblings are here.”

Evan frowned. What siblings?

Tiago probably knew all of Celie’s friends because he visited her at school every now and then. Mostly it was so he could keep Evan on his toes by insinuating that she was within the reach of his claws at all times.

Evan watched Nick and Elysia mingling with Tiago, remembering how they bickered all the time like siblings. But their facial features weren’t even remotely alike.

Then his gaze ducted to the two dark-heads standing off to the side, both wearing the same gloomy expression, the same vacant eyes. Not in appearance, but in demeanor, there seemed to be a flicker of familiarity between them.

Wren and Rumi were siblings? The thought hadn’t even crossed Evan’s mind. He was slightly embarrassed when he realized how little he knew of his sister’s friends.

“How’s Uncle Bruce?” Celie asked, grinning up at Tiago.

Blood turned to ice in Evan’s veins, a sudden stiffness rendering him motionless. He kept his expression blank, but when Tiago quirked a brow in his direction, a drop of cold sweat trickled down his nape. Knowing Tiago and his sick mind games, it was difficult to say what he could be plotting.

"I’ve sent Uncle Bruce on a vacation,” Tiago said, voice sweet with an undertone of threat meant singularly for Evan’s ears. “He won’t be back for a while.”

Evan and Tiago stared at each other. This hunk of muscles was the only ghost in Evan’s life that he couldn’t exorcise. Even though the most painful memories of his life were brought to him on a silver platter by this very man.

Worse, he couldn’t even say anything. Celie was happy because of Tiago, and Evan wouldn’teverintentionally snatch that smile from her face.

“Who’s hungry?” Aaron suddenly asked, dispersing the tension in the room that Celie and her friends had failed to notice.