Heiress Returns Family Shocks (Nina Swanson) novel Chapter 370

Chapter 370

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Now, after hearing what Nina said, a faint memory flickered in his mind, though he still wasn’t certain. “Wait. Are you the girl that Ms. James brought with her back then?”

“That’s it,’ he realized, everything suddenly making sense. ‘It has to be her.’

He remembered it all too well.

Back then, Ruby had brought a little girl up the mountain to learn martial arts from the syndicate leader, Onyx Valdez.

Because Ruby was someone important, Onyx gave that girl one–on–one lessons, away from everyone else.

Hardly anyone knew about it, but being Onyx’s top disciple, Patrick was in the loop.

He still remembered how Onyx once said that the girl was a martial arts prodigy, but because of her special status, she could never officially become a Shadowblade Syndicate disciple.

She spent three years at the syndicate, but to Patrick, she was always just a distant figure practicing on the training grounds; he never even got a proper look at her face.

After she left the mountain, it wasn’t even two years before disaster struck the Shadowblade Syndicate.

Onyx vanished without a trace, and every other clan in the martial world was itching to swallow the Shadowblade Syndicate whole.

Patrick refused to let the syndicate fall into anyone else’s hands, so he fought tooth and nail against all the other clans. In the end, the Shadowblade Syndicate suffered heavy losses.

Even though he managed to fight off all the other clans, after that, everyone was gunning for the Shadowblade Syndicate. They were barely scraping by, just trying to survive day by day.

There was even a time when hundreds of them had to split just some bread for an entire month.

Reluctantly, and with no other way to keep his people alive, Patrick ended up joining the Nicholson family.

But since then, all they’d managed to scrape together was 30 thousand.

That 30 thousand came from one job, heading out to pick up some files and delivering them safely to the Nicholson family.

Every other job they offered was all about killing people.

Patrick refused every single one of them. But that just made things even worse. The Shadowblade Syndicate was on the brink of collapse, barely able to survive.

Accepting the job to kill Nina was something he was forced into, with no other options left.

He never really intended to kill her.

His plan was to knock her out, take her somewhere remote, get her out of Riverdale, then fake her death so he could collect the 2 million from the Nicholson family and vanish with his people, laying low for good.

But Patrick never thought Nina would figure out who he really was.

“Mr. Valdez always had such unbending pride. Who would’ve thought he’d let you guys get mixed up in murder–for–hire?” Nina said, her brows knitting in disbelief.

Onyx was practically her teacher. She never imagined the once–righteous Shadowblade Syndicate would end up doing the

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Chapter 370

Nicholson family’s dirty work like a bunch of hired thugs.

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Patrick looked genuinely ashamed. “I know you look down upon me, but I did what I had to so we could survive. Believe it or not, killing you was never my plan from the start.”

He lifted his head and met Nina’s gaze. “If you really are that girl from back then, you should know exactly what the Shadowblade Syndicate’s martial arts can do.

“You’re tough, but with my skills, there’s no way I couldn’t have hurt you if I wanted to.”

Nina didn’t say a word.

Just like Patrick said, they’d been holding back from the start, never once trying to actually kill anyone.

If they hadn’t, with the way Philip and Miranda were fighting, so reckless and all over the place, they’d have been dead a thousand times by now.

There was no dead weight in the Shadowblade Syndicate.

No exaggeration, if these guys were fighting at full strength, even Nina would’ve struggled to handle them.

“And just so you know, our joining the Nicholson family had nothing to do with Mr. Valdez. He’s been gone for ten years now, and there’s still not a single clue about where he is.

“I need money, not just to support the Shadowblade Syndicate, but also to keep looking for Mr. Valdez,” Patrick said.

Before Patrick could say more, Nina interrupted him, “Wait, Mr.Valdez went missing?”

Patrick looked taken aback. “You really didn’t know? After Mr. Valdez disappeared, Ms. James came to see us on the mountain. She’s the one who told us to join the Nicholson family. I just figured you were in the loop.”