The Alcove living room was a battlefield, though no swords were drawn, and no bullets were fired.
Instead, there was silence—a tense, suffocating quiet that was worse than any shouting match could ever be. All my brothers sat there, their grim faces turned toward me like a jury ready to deliver their verdict.
I couldn't take it anymore. "What is it now? I thought you all liked Ethan. What changed?"
Dante, usually the first to crack a joke or flash that maddening smirk, was unnervingly serious. "It's different now. You have to understand, sis—we're doing this for your sake."
"For my sake?" I scoffed, crossing my arms. "What's that supposed to mean? You're telling me to break up with him out of nowhere, and I'm just supposed to blindly trust you?"
"Xandria," Marcus began, leaning forward with his hands clasped tightly together. He had that calculating look in his hazel eyes, the one that always made me feel like I was a pawn on his chessboard. "Do you remember the deal we made?"
