Chapter 10 Knox #2
But Marco’s charm didn’t last. It wore thin the longer we stayed, slipping in small ways at first, then all at once.
What we had mistaken for confidence and charm was really selfishness, greed, and a lack of empathy.
It became clear there was something wrong with him, something no one ever corrected because no one ever told him "no. "
Marco took what he wanted. It didn’t matter if it was objects, attention, or people. There were no consequences, no boundaries, no lines he wouldn’t cross, because none had ever been drawn.
If he wanted something, it was already his.
We didn’t understand how far that went until the girl.
She was an omega. It was obvious how young, nervous, and clearly out of place she was, the moment she stepped inside his house. I remember the way she lingered in the foyer, slipping off her shoes, looking around in awe.
Marco came down the grand staircase to meet her with that same easy charm and sharp smile that had fooled us once too.
She followed him willingly, upstairs, down the hall, to his bedroom.
But what came wasn't willing.
We never saw what happened.
But we heard it.
A struggle. A crash. A muffled cry. Silence until… Our mother screamed.
Then silence again.
Silas and I rushed upstairs when we heard our mother's frightened cry, but by the time we reached Marco’s door and forced it open, it was already over.
The omega girl was on the floor, still and lifeless.
Our mother lay next to the girl, her neck twisted at an unnatural angle, eyes open and unblinking.
I have always assumed she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
That our mother had walked in on something Marco never meant her to see.
Whatever had happened to the omega girl, whether it was an accident or something that spiraled too far, didn’t matter in the end.
What mattered was that our mother saw it.
And we had spent enough time around the Bellinis to understand exactly what happened to witnesses.
Now we too had become witnesses. Loose ends who saw Marco’s first killing spree. In the Bellini Crime Syndicate, loose ends didn’t get mercy. They got erased.
Marco stared at us as he stood over the corpse of our mother. The chilling way he looked at us wasn't remorseful or even panicked, but calm in an eerie way. Calculating and cold.
He looked at us like we were next.
There was nothing uncertain about what he planned to do to us.
So we turned and ran right out of the house, not even stopping to mourn our mother. She was gone, and there was nothing we could have done to help her.
Enzo and Marco put a hit out on us within days, just like we knew they would. After that, it was survival. Hiding. Running. Learning how to stay just out of the Bellini Crime Syndicate’s reach.
When we turned sixteen, we enlisted early with Arca, working our way through the system and the ranks until we landed in AIED, close enough to see how everything operated and, more importantly, ranked high enough to pull strings.
Command didn’t sanction Enzo Bellini’s death. Silas and I secretly carried out the hit. We knew Enzo had to die for Marco to unravel. Using our position, our access, and everything we had learned, it was easy to orchestrate it from the inside, pulling strings until the outcome was inevitable.
We could have done the same to Marco. It would have been so easy to kill him outright.
But it wouldn’t have been enough.
Death is too simple for someone like him. Too quick. Marco took everything from us, without consequence, and we wanted him to understand what that feels like.
So we’ve waited and positioned ourselves carefully, building a trap he won't recognize is his end until it's already too late.
We plan to take everything from him.
And then, when he has nothing left, we will kill him.
All of it has been leading here.
So close to revenge.
My focus snapped back to the present.
“To us,” I said quietly, finally meeting Lena’s gaze, “Marco didn't just hurt you. He hurt us too. He killed our mother.” I took a breath. “And he’s hurt a lot of other people too. Some, like the rest of his captive omegas, still need help.”
Her brow knitted in deep thought.
“No one knows what I just told you,” I continued. “If our superiors found out, we’d be pulled from this immediately. Conflict of interest. And the unsanctioned hit on Enzo? We'd be court court-martialled, probably sent to the colonies.”
A beat.
“I’m choosing to trust you, Lena.”
Once those words settled I added, “And I’m hoping that now that you know our truth, you’ll understand why we’re doing this. Why we can’t stop and why we need answers from you. I’m hoping that in choosing to trust you, you’ll choose to trust us in return.”
I shifted my weight, preparing to leave. “You don’t have to answer me now. Just think about what I said.”
My hand still hovered between us, uncertainty holding it there. Just as I was about to pull it away, she leaned forward.
Her soft, warm cheek met my palm.
The touch felt like an answer without words. Lena leaned in, offering trust where there had been none before.
I stayed still, letting her set the pace.
My thumb shifted slightly against her cheek, careful, giving her time to pull back if she wanted. She didn’t. Her eyes closed as she exhaled, fighting the urge to pull away.
“Okay,” I said quietly, more to acknowledge the moment than to fill it.
I drew my hand back deliberately so she could see I could stop when she needed me to. Lena leaned back as well, wrapping her arms around her torso, but something had changed. The space between us no longer felt so closed off.
“I’ll give you time,” I said, rising to my feet. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”
As I moved toward the door, I felt her watching me.
I knew she was considering what I had told her.
Weighing whether it was the truth.
Just that consideration was enough.
For now.