No One Left to Betray


    That pnded hard–Naomi’s cheek burned hot and sharp, the skin stinging like it had been lit on fire.


    “Shut up! Say one more word and I’ll cut out your damn tongue!”


    The brute looming over her wasn’t just angry–he looked like he meant every word. Naomi’s heart mmed against her ribs. She knew this man. He was always beside Matteo, like a shadow. A shadow that snapped necks.


    “Matteo… Matteo, please… save me…”


    Her voice shrank to barely more than a whisper. She didn’t dare raise it. The fear had wed its way up her throat and strangled the rest of her words.


    Matteo didn’t blink. He gave her the coldest nce she’d ever seen.


    “You’re the one who screwed up,” he said tly. “Don’te crying to me now.”


    “I know I messed up! I really do! Just let me go–I’ll disappear, I swear! I’ll vanish and nevere back!”


    “Oh?” Matteo raised an eyebrow. “And what about your parents? You nning to vanish with them too?”


    Naomi froze.


    Her parents.


    She nced toward the van–and Matteo caught it.


    He smirked.


    “You run, they pay for it. You stay quiet, maybe–just maybe–they live.”


    For a second, Matteo thought she might cry. But what came next surprised even him.


    “Them? What the hell do they have to do with anything?” Naomi snapped. “If they hadn’t been so damn useless, I wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with! I already did more than enough by letting them live in that apartment Nathaniel gave me. I don’t owe them a damn thing!”


    Matteoughed. Actuallyughed.


    “I knew you were trash,” he said, “but I didn’t expect you to admit it so proudly.”


    Behind him, the van doors creaked open.


    Naomi turned just in time to see two trembling figures being dragged out–Evelyn and Nathan. Their mouths were sealed with tape, wrists/bound tight with stic ties.


    Matteo gestured casually. “Sée, Nagmi? Here they are. Your loving parents. And guess what–they got to hear every word.”


    Naomi’s blood ran cold.


    “You’re a monster,” she whispered.


    “And you’re their daughter.”


    Chapter 369 No One Left to Betray


    He walked over to Evelyn and ripped the tape off her mouth.


    “I’ll give you a choice,” he told her. “Die now… and I’ll let your daughter live. Do that, and she walks.”


    Evelyn’s face contorted in shock, but it only took her a moment to turn her re toward Naomi.


    Finished


    “You ungrateful little bitch!” she spat. “We gave you everything! And now <i>you </i>stand there and say you don’t care if we live or die?! How the hell did I raise something like you?!”


    Naomi rolled her eyes. “Maybe if you two weren’t so pathetic, I wouldn’t have had to w my way through this disgusting life you handed me. You think I wanted to live in a hotel room with rats and peeling walls while Eliza stole the life that was supposed to be mine?!”


    “You little-!”


    “Enough,” Matteo cut in.


    He turned to Nathan, ripped the tape from his mouth too.


    “And you?”


    Nathan didn’t hesitate.


    “I don’t care what you do with her,” he said in a panic. “She’s not my daughter anymore. Kill her, chop her up, whatever! Just let us go–I had nothing to do with any of this!”


    Naomi stared at him, stunned.


    “Dad…”


    “You were a tool,” he snapped. “You’re not useful anymore.”


    Matteo let out a low whistle.


    “Wow. What a family.”


    And with that, he drove the knife clean into Nathan’s chest.


    The old man barely had time to register the pain. He looked down at the de, then up at Matteo–eyes wide, mouth gaping.


    By the time he hit the ground, he was already gone.