Chapter 51
Present
Zach’s penthouse was gorgeous. Floor-to-ceiling windows a view of Manhattan far below. The couch we lounged on was soft enough to swallow you whole, and the faint hum of the penthouse’s heating system made the world outside feel impossibly distant.
“It’s a nice place.”
Maria stretched lazily, smiling. “Zach keeps saying I should redecorate if I want. Can you imagine?”
I immediately started laughing.
“Right?” She giggled. “I’d rather hire somebody. But I already love this place the way it is.”
It was strange, seeing her this relaxed. I knew it was because Zach was almost fully recovered now, so all the stressors were gone. He was just a few feet away, sleeping in their bedroom down the hall.
“You’re happy,” I said, returning her smile.
“It feels right,” She said softly, her gaze drifting to the closed bedroom door.
“You ever going to tell me what happened between you two?”
She took a deep breath. “It’s a long story.”
“We got all the time in the world.”
She glanced toward the hallway leading to the master, as if checking to see if Zach was still asleep. “Do you remember when I told you about what I used to do?”
I nodded slowly. Maria’s past wasn’t a secret between us. At nineteen, she’d retired from being a government agent, though more specifically assassin. She never went into detail, and I never pushed her for more than she was ready to share.
“And do you remember my last job? The one I did for Francesca?”
I nodded again, letting her speak.
“She called me three years ago. There was a problem in Mexico – a mess she needed cleaned up. Their main supplier wasn’t in the country, and some people got bold, tried to take over.”
“Maria…” I trailed off, already connecting the dots.
Cosa Nostra’s main narcotics supplier slept peacefully in a bedroom down the hall.
Maria let out a slow breath. “Zach thought I was an assassin sent to kill him, not knowing Francesca had sent me to save him. He spent three years hunting me down… But when he finally found me… He fell for me. And I fell for him.”
I swallowed hard, my pulse quickening, letting her continue.
“Someone from my past with the government reached out, offering to erase my criminal record if I killed Zach. I never even considered it, but before I could tell Zach, he found out on his own and thought I'd been playing him the whole time.”
I spoke cautiously. “What did he do?”
Maria’s gaze dropped. “He didn’t hurt me, but his words did. Told me nothing between us had been real, that he’d only used me to get to another assassin. When the truth came out, he begged me to stay. But I couldn’t get past it.”
“Of course not.”
She nodded. “Still, we had… Unfinished business . Which led to Zach pushing me out of the way taking four bullets for me in the chest .” Her voice broke on the last word, and I felt my own chest tighten. “Then I took the other out. All of them.”
“ Good .”
A moment of silence passed.
“I thought he was gone,” She whispered, her hands trembling slightly. “I couldn’t bear to lose him. He risked everything for me. Almost died for me. And it wasn’t the first time either that he’d chosen my life over his.”
“He’s okay now.” All I could do was reach out and take her hand, squeezing it tightly.
My chest eased slightly, knowing Zach would put his life down for Maria. They were both dangerous people living dangerous lives, and protecting someone else with your life meant an insignificant amount to both of them.
She looked at me, her eyes glassy but determined. “I love him.”
The admission hit me harder than I expected. Maria wasn’t the kind of person to say things like that lightly.
A peace I didn’t expect came with her words. The assurance that Zach would die before anyone ever thought about hurting her. The knowledge that she’d found her other half. There was an undeniable connection between her and Zach that everyone had been able to see since the very first time they locked eyes across that club.
“Can I ask you something?” I continued once Maria nodded, “How did Zach find all that information on you?”
She rolled her eyes. “He’s best friends with Trevor.”
“Trevor?” I breathed out. “That’s who helped Zach find all that information on you?”
Maria nodded, brushing a strand of hair out of her face. “Yeah. I don’t blame him, though. He was just helping Zach.”
My stomach twisted into knots, but I forced a casual nod.
Maria didn’t know I was dating Trevor. She didn’t know about the dates in the park, the quiet nights in his apartment, the promise of a future together. And now I was sitting here, pretending I wasn’t seconds away from spiraling.
“You think I could see what Trevor gave him?” I asked, keeping my voice steady.
“Why?”
“Hacker curiosity,” I said with a shrug. “If Trevor’s that good, I’d love to see how deep he went.”
Maria blinked, but then she nodded. “Umm, sure.” She leaned over to Zach’s laptop on the coffee table, flipping it open and putting the password in. “Zach showed me parts of it after… Everything .” She turned it to me after finding the file.
I opened it, scanning through it with practiced efficiency.
Most of it was what I expected: Maria’s background, pieced together from fragments of old records. Some redacted government files.
My chest tightened, the weight of betrayal sinking in.
Trevor knew how much Maria meant to me. She wasn’t just my best friend; she was my sister in every way that mattered. He had to have known that digging into her past.
Helping Zach hunt her down crossed a line.
He’d made a choice, and that choice cut deeper than I wanted to admit.
But then, something caught my eye – a folder buried within the main directory.
My name.
I clicked on it, and my heart stopped.
Inside was everything. Foster care and orphanage records. My high school transcripts. Even a list of the dates and times I’d visited the NYPD while Maria had been ‘missing,’ desperate for answers after her supposed death at sixteen.
My hands gripped the laptop so tight, my knuckles turned white.
A sickening thought crept into my mind.
Every casual question he’d asked about Maria over the past few months suddenly felt like it had a motive. Had Trevor been using me?
It felt calculated. Cold. Exactly the type of person he was.
And if that was true, if he’d used me as a way to get closer to Maria’s secrets…
I wasn’t just betrayed.
I was a fool.
I stood abruptly, the weight in my chest too much to bear as I fought to keep my voice steady. “I’ll be right back.”
Maria glanced up from her phone. “Okay. I’m going to check on Zach.”
I nodded, already halfway to the other hallway. The second I closed a guestroom door behind me, I pulled out my phone, my fingers trembling as I scrolled to Trevor’s name.
The phone barely rang before he picked up, his voice smooth and warm. “Baby. Everything okay?”
I swallowed hard, my grip tightening on the phone. “ You lied .” My voice trembled. “ You didn’t come back for me .”
There was a pause on the other end.
When he spoke again, his tone was cautious. “What are you talking about?”
“You were helping him the whole time. Do you even love me? Or was I just some convenient way for you to get information on Maria?”
“Nat–”
“Maria is my family . My everything . She’s my sister , Trevor. And you knew that. You knew what she meant to me, and you still helped Zach… How could you? ”
“You don’t understand–”
“What if he hadn’t fallen in love with her? What if he hadn’t changed his mind? What then, Trevor? Would I have a dead sister? Because of you ?”
“I wasn’t trying to hurt you–”
“But you did!” My voice cracked. “You hurt me by hurting Maria. And now I can’t stop wondering if you’ve been using me this entire time. Every question about Maria. Every conversation. The folder you have on me… It all feels like a lie now.”
“ It wasn’t a lie ,” He said firmly, his voice lower now. “ Not with you .”
I closed my eyes. “I can’t trust anything you say right now.”
“Natalia, please–”
“I didn’t want to choose between you and my sister, but you forced me .” My voice broke. “I need space. I need a break. From us.”
I hung up.
A call from him came back immediately, but I turned my phone off.
My heart pounded so loud, it drowned out everything else. For a moment, I leaned against the wall, trying to steady myself, but the ache in my chest didn’t subside.
I walked back into the living room, my heart still pounding, my throat bleeding from everything I’d just said to Trevor. Maria was already sitting on the couch, waiting for me.
I silently took my seat back next to her.
The second my eyes met hers, the tears started to fall without warning.
She immediately reached for me. “Nat, what’s wrong?”
I couldn’t even answer. The words stuck in my throat, tangled in the mess of my emotions. I buried my face in her shoulder, silently crying as she just held me.
“Girls? What’s wrong?” A voice interrupted, breaking through the tension. Zach stepped out of the hallway leading to their bedroom, looking like he’d just woken up, his hair messy and his expression confused.
Maria shook her head, her hand gently stroking my back. “I don’t know.”
Zach’s gaze shifted to the laptop on the table. His face dropped as he noticed the open files, before looking at me and stepping into the large living space.
Maria caught our exchange. “What’s going on?”
I wiped my eyes, trying to pull myself together. “I’ve been… Seeing Trevor.”
Her eyes went wide. “WHAT?”
I winced at the force of her reaction. “For some time…”
“How much time?”
“Almost a…” I trailed off, looking down.
“Month?”
“A year…”
“A YEAR?!” She repeated, shock in her voice.
“Most recently,” Zach murmured, cutting in.
I shot him a death glare before I could stop myself.
“This is not the first time?” Maria asked, confused.
“They started seeing each other when Natalia transferred to Columbia,” Zach answered for me, his voice soft but insistent. He sat down next to Maria, his hand settling on her lower back.
She gasped. “That’s like, what? Five years ago?!”
“We hooked up a couple times in college,” I corrected, my voice tight, hating the situation. “Then didn’t see each other until my birthday this year, when he came back to New York.”
“He came back for you?” Maria asked, her voice softer now.
I scoffed through the tears, hating how raw my emotions were. “ Yeah, right .”
The moment I said it, I realized how it sounded – like Trevor had come back because of Zach. That’s not what I had meant at all.
Maria straightened, slowly turning to Zach. “You knew the whole time, and still got them involved?”
Zach opened his mouth to explain, but before he could, Maria smacked him upside the head. He rubbed the back of his head, looking like a hurt puppy, even though she hit him lighter than a feather. The way he looked at her – so innocent, yet guilty at the same time – made my heart ache for a love like that.
She turned to me. “I’m sorry you and Trevor got dragged into this, Nat.”
“It’s not either of your fault. Trevor should’ve never involved me .”