"Mia, I'll come speak to you later," I told her. My anger wasn’t directed at her, but I struggled to contain it.
"Luc," Mia started.
"Please!" I said. I needed to deal with both of them separately.
Mia gave Stefan a look and he nodded at her in return. I felt like I might pop a blood vessel at the exchange. Mia sighed and walked up the stairs. Only when I heard the door to her room close in the silence did I round on my brother, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt.
"Next time I call, you answer your fucking phone," I told him through gritted teeth. Stefan wasn’t new to any of this. He knew if I called there would be a reason, never for a casual social conversation. We were too different to warrant even faking an interest in each other’s life.
"Or what, Lucas?" Stefan sneered.
Our relationship had mildly improved when Stefan left for college because I didn't have to see or talk to him as much. I had paid for his tuition fees. It was my work that allowed Stefan to live out his dreams of becoming a doctor, and he repaid me with attitude and disdain. If it continued, then living under the same roof would quickly become a mistake.
"Stefan, I mean it," I warned him. "Stay away from her."
"I think we’re getting on pretty well," he informed me with a smirk. "Plus, I'm not the one who's going to hurt her."
I dropped him from my grasp. "Don't push me, Stef."
I straightened up and adjusted my shirt, walking away from Stefan before I knocked some sense into him. That wouldn’t help my case with Mia or Mom.
"She's going to end up like Isa," Stefan said.
I turned on him and hissed, "Don't you dare."
"You know it."
Stefan was pushing his luck and I could hear the blood thundering in my ears. "It's different."
"Isa got caught in the crossfire and she didn't deserve it," Stefan reminded me. If Stefan and I’d had a strained relationship before, everything regarding Isabella had ensured that we would never be family in anything other than an unfortunate circumstance of blood.
"I'm not going to let that happen to Mia," I told him.
"Then why were you so worried?"
I didn't need to explain myself to Stefan. I left my younger brother standing there as I took the stairs two at a time to get to Mia's room. When I opened her door, she was sitting on the bed looking as upset as she had in the car. Walking over, I sat on the bed and for a few moments there was only silence between us.
"I didn't mean to—" Mia started.
I pulled her into a hug and squeezed her tight. Mia shifted until she straddled my lap and returned the hug.
"I thought something had happened to you," I murmured into her hair.
"I literally just went for dinner with Stef," Mia told me again, as if I would suddenly see reason.
"Leave a Goddamn note, Mia."
"I'm so sorry. I didn't think. I didn’t think there would be a problem and I was worried and a little mad at you for not letting me know you were running late. I thought I was being stood up."
I pulled away to look at her properly. My hands rubbed up and down her back, grateful that she was sitting in front of me.
"You were mad at me and you thought you'd pay me back by giving me a heart attack?" I asked her.
"No!" Mia said. "Of course not." Her hands came up and cupped my face and I let out a shuddering breath. Mia was in my head a lot more than I would like to admit.
"I was running late," I explained. "I wasn't trying to stand you up."
"I know, Luc. This might be easier if I had my phone."
