His grin was evil, full of all the hate that was in his heart. When my brother had stopped loving me, I wasn’t sure, but right then, I seriously wondered if he had ever cared about me in his life. “He was between his new whore’s legs, Nova. Her name is CeCe, and he told me she’s wild in bed. I can hear them from the other side of the apartment every night, and she has him screaming all night long. He can’t keep his dick out of her. Yesterday, he was too busy fucking her brains out to worry about spending even a minute with you. Because you don’t matter to him anymore.”

It took everything in me to keep my smirk in place, but the ability to fight wasn’t the only thing Anya had helped me perfect over the years. I would never let the enemy see my weakness, and at that moment, my brother was very much my personal enemy. He would never know that his words had caused an avalanche of pain to consume my entire body.

So, that was it. That was why Ryan had moved out of the Vitucci mansion. Not even into one of the smaller houses within the compound, but as far away from me as possible. Whatever had kept him from having intimate relationships with women—or even men—in the past had corrected itself. I’d known it would happen one day. I’d just held out hope that when he finally wanted someone like that, it would be me.

“What’s wrong, Garret?” I batted my eyelashes up at him innocently, keeping my voice sugary-sweet. “Are you jealous that Ryan didn’t start batting for the other team after all, and now you won’t get the chance to suck his dick?”

“You little bitch.” He took a step in my direction, but I didn’t back down. He would be on his ass in two seconds flat if he so much as—

“What are these tears?” Aunt Raven demanded as she came out of the office, and I looked down to find Ian and Isaac crying silently as they tried to fix one of the table toppers.

“We didn’t mean to make him trip, Auntie,” Isaac told her. “We’ll try to fix them.”

She crouched down beside the box, stroking her fingertips over their damp cheeks. “Ah, boys, this wasn’t your fault. I shouldn’t have left the box in the way. You both did a great job. The tables look perfect. Thank you for all your help.” Straightening, she turned her glare on Garret. “Clean this up. Now.”

“Do it yourself,” he told her, keeping his menacing gaze locked on me. “I have shit to do.”

She’d been about to turn away from us, but at his smartass reply, she jerked around, her green eyes blazing. “Excuse me?”

Slowly, he turned his head and looked at her. “You heard me. I don’t work for you, and I have other shit to do.”

“Nova.” Aunt Raven spoke through clenched teeth. “Take the twins outside to play.”