Chapter 12. The Past Still Hurts

Theo

His words caused a wave of nostalgia to hear his voice again. Despite always following our father's path, Ruan had always been a good brother to me, so it hurt me deeply when I saw him offering money to Juliano to stay away from me.

"How are you?" I asked, feeling nervous about the situation.

"I'm fine, and you?"

"Fine," I replied. The silence lingered for a few seconds until I heard him sigh.

"You look different," his statement made me smile. "You don't look like the little boy who used to run around our parents' house."

"Age catches up with everyone. I saw that you got married, congratulations," I sincerely wished he would smile and brag about his wife, showing all the love that I hadn't seen in the photos on his Instagram. But he remained serious, cold.

"Ah, thank you," was his response. "I heard you dropped out of college. What are you doing with your life now?"

"Bianca and I opened a clothing brand and are ga