Twenty-Six receipts of betrayal Novel novel Chapter 26

The car fell silent for a long time.

Nicholas watched as Valentina frantically zipped the briefcase shut and shoved it into the backseat like it was burning her hands. Then he reached over and locked the doors. All of them. The windows, too.

“Look familiar?”

His tone was still calm–almost conversational. There was no emotion in it at all.

But Valentina heard the sharp click of the door locks engaging.

Her blood ran cold.

A chill far icier than the winter wind outside crept up her spine and wrapped itself around the back of her skull.

She pulled her hands into her lap, tucked her legs up beneath her, and pressed herself against the passenger door. A strained smile stretched across her face.

“Nicholas… what’s wrong? I thought your eyes were bothering you?”

Seeing her still pretending not to understand, Nicholas smiled back. He even mimicked her innocent, airy tone.

“Oh, they are. It’s just that reading through all those text messages made them VERY uncomfortable.”

He paused.

“What about you? Now that you’ve seen them–does anything hurt? Your eyes? Your heart? Something else, maybe?”

The way he parroted her voice, paired with that smile that didn’t reach his eyes, made Valentina want to scream.

She couldn’t keep up the act anymore. Terror flooded her face. She looked at him like she’d seen a ghost.

“I didn’t do anything! She killed herself, Nicholas!”

Nicholas knew that. Of course Elara had taken her own life.

But did that absolve Valentina of what she’d done?

If Valentina hadn’t used such vile tactics to torment her, Elara’s depression wouldn’t have relapsed. She wouldn’t have spiraled. She wouldn’t have chosen death.

If Nicholas was the scythe that severed Elara’s will to live, then Valentina was the hand that swung it.

They were accomplices. They had hounded a woman to her death.

And accomplices deserved to share the punishment.

The punishment of a life for a life.

The wind howled outside–fierce and relentless in the empty countryside. It made Nicholas’s voice sound even more sinister.

“She had depression. It was under control. But it came back in November. You really don’t know why?”

Valentina had no idea Elara had ever struggled with depression.

1632

Twenty Six Receipts of Betrayal: My Silence Was the Countdown to His Eternal Regret

Chapter 26

She’d only wanted to drive a wedge between them–so she could be with Nicholas without guilt. So it would all seem justified.

She had never intended for Elara to die.

So when Nicholas accused her, she shook her head violently, desperate to prove her innocence.

“I didn’t know! I swear I didn’t know! I only sent those messages because I wanted her to let you go–to let us be together! I never wanted her to die, I swear! Please, Nicholas, just believe me this once-“‘

But from the moment Nicholas had seen those messages, he’d stopped believing anything Valentina said.

No matter how she explained herself now, it all sounded like excuses to him.

Lies crafted to save her own skin. And they only fanned the flames of rage burning in his chest.

His control snapped.

He slammed his foot on the gas.

The car shot forward and crashed straight into the hillside.

Valentina, who hadn’t been wearing her seatbelt, was thrown forward. Her head smashed into the window with a sickening crack.

Rocks, dirt, and dead leaves rained down from above. The glass spiderwebbed under the impact.

Blood seeped from the gash on her forehead, trickling down along the fractured lines. It looked like a red web stretched across the window.

And in the center of that web, trapped together, were the mantis and the oriole.

Nicholas stared at the vivid splash of red blooming before him. Slowly, he released the steering wheel. He grabbed the hem of Valentina’s dress and yanked her toward him, pinning her hard against the seat.

“If you tell me the truth,” he said quietly, “I might consider making this easier for you. Less painful.”

Half of Valentina’s face was slick with blood streaming from her forehead. She clawed at his arm, still struggling.

“I AM telling the truth! Her death… has NOTHING… to do with me!”

Hearing that, Nicholas finally lost it.

He slapped her across the face hard.

“Nothing to do with you?” he snarled. “Then you can join her in hell anyway!!”

♡ (2)

000

(0)

16:32