Evi was not. Her previous words were still echoing in his ears, ricocheting around within his skull and sending a fresh bolt of pain coursing through his body as they did. "My papers...people...everything...says I'm adopted?" he asked faintly.

Alarmed by his tone, Reyna finally stopped talking. "Are you?" she asked, the curiosity in her voice coupled with genuine concern. "You didn't know about this?"

Evi knew better than to respond to that, but Reyna didn't need one. His reaction was the most concrete confirmation so far of what had been an informed hunch of hers. If this was news to him, he had either been raised as one of the Carters or he really was one. He wouldn't be the first omega to be renounced for being born into a 'superior' family.

A devastated Evi simply sat there, head bowed so his hair hid his tears, defeated hands no longer gripping the knife. He should have known. At the very least, the news should not have surprised him. Those people had done nothing to act like family to him. In fact, they'd done everything short of putting up a neon billboard to show that they didn't consider him to be family. Throughout all his years of conscious memory, he had known his persistent attempts to reach out to them would never amount to anything.

Yet he had stubbornly clung to hope, secure in the cold, hard fact that was his identity. He had seen his birth certificate. He'd seen the paternity test that had been done on him as a baby. He had years upon years of his mother's angry tirades cursing her fate for having an omega child. But to find out his parents hadn't just hidden his existence but gone the extra mile to wipe out his true identity completely...this was rejection at a deeper level than he had ever thought possible.

Unfortunately for him, Reyna was not done monologuing. "I personally don't care tuppence about you or your dynamic with the Carters," she claimed. "But you've drawn Mircea into this mess. If your family has nefarious reasons for hiding your true identity, they'll strike hard at anyone who digs too deep - and if that anyone is Mircea, they will hit him twice as hard simply for being who he is. I am here to stop that from happening. If you get Mircea hurt in any way, I will hunt you down and make sure every remaining day of your life feels like being dragged over broken glass."

"Leave."

Reyna stopped talking to wonder at Evi's nerve. "Excuse you," she growled. "You'd better listen if you know what's good for you."

"Please, just go." Evi massaged his temples to relieve his growing headache. "You can come back to finish your threats tomorrow. For now - leave."

Reyna scowled. "I will leave when I damn well want-"

"I SAID LEAVE, DAMN IT!"

Evi's explosive roar and the boom of his fists slamming the table bounced off the walls. For the first time that night, Reyna was stunned into silence. Evi loomed over her like a thundercloud, seething with rage even as he choked back sobs. He seemed to have doubled in size, and the air around him was so saturated with aggressive pheromones that even her less sensitive Beta senses were starting to get overwhelmed.

Well - time to go. She was not going to get anything more out of him today. Her jaw set, Reyna got to her feet and left with a curt promise of coming again. Evi didn't care enough to respond. The way things were going, having Reyna show up again was going to end up ranking as the highest point of his day.

"I don't see why you dragged me here," Maya complained. "And please don't say it's for the food. I know you'd rather bring your girlfriend."

Her husband diverted just enough attention from his phone to sigh wearily. "Ex," he corrected.

"Don't try to act like a stand-up guy, I know you're fooling-" As if Maya wasn't even there, Ezra turned to look over his shoulder to look at something else. With an infuriated huff, she grabbed her drink to throw it in his face - only to freeze as her eyes instinctively followed his gaze. "The omega?" she said incredulously. "No way. You've got a crush on him too?"

That succeeded in drawing Ezra's full attention. She pulled a face, nauseated. "Aren't you like, two decades apart? Gross."

To her surprise, Ezra mirrored her expression of disgust. "What nonsense," he snapped. "That's my little brother."

Maya's mouth fell open. Ezra's eyes widened in alarm. "I mean, I've known him since he was a baby," he hurriedly explained. "I helped raised him. He might as well be a sibling."

"Riiiight." That explanation should have made sense to Maya, but for some unfathomable reason she was skeptical. There was something more to the story of this Evinori, and she'd be damned if she didn't uncover it.

A jug of water slammed much too hard onto their table. Maya jumped a foot in the air, but Ezra only sighed again. "Hello, Evinori," he drawled.

The cloud of intoxicating pheromone contrasted sharply against the thunderous expression the omega couldn't quite hide. "What can I get you?" he snarled through clenched teeth.

"This isn't your section," said Ezra without looking up from his menu.

Maya found herself relating to Evinori as he swelled with anger at Ezra's rudeness. "Yeah, the rest of the staff refuses to serve Carters," Evinori retorted. "I'm sure you understand why."

Ezra's mouth twitched at that. Maya suppressed a giggle. She'd never be able to forget the sight of her sisters-in-law dragging their banged-up husbands through the front door. In fact, she owed Evinori a debt of gratitude. She hated those assholes who loved to put her down for being a 'rescue case.' "I'd like the most expensive white wine you have," she chirped. "And the seafood antipasto platter. And-"

"We're not here to have fun," Ezra interrupted before turning to Evinori. "We're here to talk to the owner - I'm sure you understand why."

Maya and Evinori glowered at Ezra in unison. "White wine and antipasto," the latter announced forcefully. "And the owner. Got it."

Well, well. Maya was really starting to like this Evinori. But when she tried to catch his eye to shoot him a smile, she found him looking far less spirited than he sounded. His eyes were wet and the blood was rapidly draining from his face. He wobbled slightly as he walked away, drawing concerned glances from nearby staff.

Suddenly, Ezra's refusal to look up made sense. The staff kept glancing over at their table with enough venom to kill them by their gaze alone. Their movements as they served other customers were stiff and distracted and they clearly had an ear on the goings-on at her table.

The owner was at their table in under a minute, as stiff and cold as her staff. Evinori was half-hidden behind her, back hunched and head bowed. "Hi. I'm Orienne," said the little woman, flatly. Maya could see a vein throbbing in her buzzed head. "How can I help you?"

Ezra squirmed, his mouth opening and closing but forming no words. One glance at Evinori's defeated form and all pretense fell away, showing the guilt underneath. He clearly didn't want to do this.

"Sir?"

"Uhm. I'm here about last week's incident. The, uh, assault."

The surrounding tables fell silent and the heat of the glares directed at them went up a notch. Maya discreetly shot Ezra the bird to indicate her displeasure at being drawn into this mess. "We can talk about this in my office," Orienne suggested coldly.

Ezra pulled a rueful face that clearly said 'if only' and insisted on finishing the conversation right there in the least compelling voice Maya had ever heard. Seems like Mommy's instructions were far more detailed than expected, Maya mused. Maybe this is meant to be a punishment for Ezra too. She did recollect hearing Ezra weakly attempting to defend Evinori's actions during the shouting match that had followed the twins' undignified return.

"We want that server fired immediately," Ezra said. "Or we'll be pressing charges."

"No."

Evinori's head shot up faster than a bullet, leaving his jaw behind on the floor. The silence around the table grew even louder as other customers abandoned all courtesy to eavesdrop. Ezra was so stunned he forgot to be uncomfortable for a moment. "Excuse me?" he snapped.

"We do not tolerate harassing or hateful speech in this establishment," said Orienne loudly. "Evinori went above and beyond to enforce that policy. So no, I will not be firing him."

"Beating up paying customers is not enforcement of policy. They weren't even in the restaurant. He ran them down and attacked them. That's battery."

"Are you saying we should have turned a blind eye to the sexual harrassment of fellow human beings because it was happening outside our four walls?" Orienne's voice climbed a couple of decibels with every word. A satisfied smile spread on her face as Ezra flinched and sank into his chair a little. "That we should've let your brothers force themselves onto those girls? While their wives and children looked on?"

"Can you please keep it down!" a red-faced Ezra hissed.

"I told you we should talk in my office. You wanted to do this outside, so we're doing this outside."

Out of the corner of her eye, Maya saw a few phones recording. A server even moved so he wouldn't be blocking a camera's view. This was getting real juicy. Shooting a disgusted look at her husband for the cameras, she sat back with her water and enjoyed the shitshow. "Even if my brothers went a little overboard in their attempts to be friendly," Ezra argued quietly, digging himself a deeper hole, "your employee's reaction was disproportionate. Are you saying your restaurant condones violence?"

"It does not, but it also does not believe in punishing employees for doing the right thing."

"It's still assault. Fire him or we will sue this establishment. Given that we have clear evidence of bodily harm and multiple witnesses, your restaurant won't survive the lawsuit."

At this Evinori grabbed Orienne's shoulder, terrified. "Orienne, no," he told her. "Just let me go."

Orienne shook his hand off. "Bring it on," she growled. "You want to talk evidence? We have footage of your family making those girls uncomfortable, ignoring repeated verbal warnings, refusing to stop their kids from wreaking havoc, following those girls out to their car."

Ezra looked around him awkwardly (doing a quick double-take at Maya's schadenfreude) and spoke even softer, fixing Orienne with a loaded glare of warning. "Look, let's get real here. I'm not liking this any more than you are. But Gia is your late mother's dear friend and she invested a large amount in this cafe as a favor to her. It's in your business' best interest to do as you're asked."

Evinori's face twisted with disgust and loathing. How glad Maya was to find someone who hated her mother-in-law more than she did! Leaning towards the server frozen behind her, she asked, "You serve popcorn?" The server scoffed and whispered back "I wish!" before realizing who she was talking to.

Orienne slammed a hand onto their table. "Getting real, are we? Fine. What makes you think I'd fire my biggest moneymaker? I've got one of the last omega men on Earth. Scores of customers come here just for him. Not only that, he widens my customer base by creating a safe space for all kinds of people to treat themselves to a fancy experience without you snobby rich bastards bullying them."

Behind her, Evinori had let his hair down to shield his face. What little Maya could see of it bore an unreadable expression. She blinked, mystified. Shouldn't he have been pleased that his boss was singing his praises?

Ezra made another half-baked attempt at arguing, but Orienne stomped it down instantly. "If it's not clear enough," she said at a normal volume, "Your mother throwing a tantrum because her baby boys got what was coming to them for thinking with their dicks...that's not a good enough reason to fire him. Don't like the way I do things? Tell that bitch Gia to pull her investment. I don't need her money."

"Wait! I know you can hear me. Ezra, Maya, wait!"

Maya was more than happy to. Reaching beyond Ezra, she pushed shut the car door he'd opened. "You're only going to make yourself look worse," she told him when he glared at her in outrage. "You think people aren't still recording?"

Ezra clenched his jaw resentfully and turned to Evinori, who'd just run up to them. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry," the omega panted. "I didn't want things to turn out like this."

"You should've thought of that before you blew things out of proportion by going ape shit on Elwynn and Emory," Ezra snapped.

Evinori flinched, looking hurt. "That's not fair, Ezra." Maya wondered why he was being so docile all of a sudden. "They're the ones who took things too far."

"And you made it worse! Why don't you understand? You're not in a position to be a savior for others because the people you save them from have full and open access to you. Your little act of heroism only made everything worse. You're enough of a burden on the PR team on a good day, and now they have this fine mess to clean up!"

"Hey. Stop." Maya squeezed Ezra's shoulder to draw his attention. "Aren't you going too far?"

Ezra rounded on her like a rampaging rhinoceros. "You stay out of this! You've done nothing but enjoy every second of what happened. You're welcome to remain the outsider that you are." Ignoring Maya's flinch, he turned back to Evi. "I had nothing to do with all of this, yet I'm the one who got utterly humiliated! You know why? Because your little stunt was so big mum had to bring me in for damage control, and for once I decided to stand up for you!"

Now Maya was angry. She may have been an affluenza-prone socialite who ate money for breakfast with the latest Birkin going out of stock being her biggest crisis, but she understood unfairness. But there was a very real lesson in Ezra's rant. As he'd made very clear, she was an outsider - like Evinori. In the face of power like the Carters held, she would get nowhere by making noise. So she swallowed her anger, called Ezra an asshole and retreated to the car for the moment.

Evinori was nearly twice the size of the average omega, but he looked so small as Ezra got into his face and jabbed an accusing finger at him. "I know life's been very cruel to you, Nori. You have a lot to be rightfully angry at, myself included. But you've been told to keep a low profile."

"I didn't fight them for my own sake! How could I-"

"Shut up! You know what, I'm so tired of you, Evinori. Look at what happens when anyone even appears to align themselves with you! You're a fucking broken mirror, you've been one since before you were even born."

Until then, Maya had not known what a crushed man still standing looked like. Before her very eyes, Evinori died a little. "You don't mean that," he whimpered.

Ezra only turned his back to him. "I'm never involving myself with you again. Now I see  why mum stowed you away in that cottage." He climbed into the car and slammed the door in Evinori's face before lowering the window for one last dagger. "And she was right."