Chapter 5

Matteo's POV

I had nowhere left to go. Then again, I'd be gone soon enough—there was no point in having a place to stay anyway.

With only three hours left on the clock, I sat out on the front steps, trying to soak up the sun. The bright light washed over me, but it did nothing to warm a body already going cold from the inside out.

The courtyard gate creaked open. I looked up to see Luca leaning against it, his arms crossed over his chest, staring down at me with cold eyes.

"You really do have nine lives, don't you? Even that didn't kill you," he sneered.

I blinked, a bit dazed, before a soft smile slipped onto my face. "Soon. Don't get impatient."

He opened his mouth to snap back, but the sudden sound of approaching footsteps cut him off. Instantly, his arms dropped to his sides, and his face shifted into a picture-perfect mask of submissive innocence.

"Matteo, I swear I didn't mean to. Please don't be mad at me," he pleaded. "You just got discharged from the hospital. You can't stress yourself out like this. Let me get the housekeeper to whip up some chicken broth for you right now."

Before he could even finish, Daniela stormed into the courtyard, practically radiating fury. She shoved her phone in my face.

An open chat log stared back at me. It was a text from someone.

"Ms. Falcone, your husband's got some nerve. He mass-messaged your rivals, telling them that you're actually in love with Luca. He told them to go after Luca from now on and leave him out of it.

"He sent photos, addresses, everything. Luca's getting doxxed across social media right now."

Daniela lost it. Blind with rage, she drove her boot squarely into my chest.

"I never should have sent anyone to save you!" she snapped, her voice shaking with venom. "You should have just died out there!"

I gasped for air and forced my head up, but the glare of the sun kept my eyes from opening. Then the freezing metal of a gun barrel pressed hard against my forehead. The piercing chill sent a violent shudder down my spine.

"It wasn't me," I whispered.

Over the past three years, it felt like I had repeated those exact words a thousand times.

Luca rushed over and grabbed Daniela's arm, his voice frantic. "Dani, stop! Matteo didn't mean it. It's my fault. I took the woman he loves, so of course he hates me. Please don't hurt him. He just got out of the hospital…"

He kept up the act. "My accounts don't matter. Even if they come after me, it's fine. I can take it…"

Daniela's expression melted into heartbreak as she looked at him, but the moment she whipped around to face me, her eyes hardened with venom.

"I regret the day I ever made you my husband," she spat. "You're nothing but a scheming, malicious bastard!"

A call from one of her men cut in.

"Ms. Falcone, we've got a problem! Several of our rivals have put bounties on Mr. Bianchi's head. What do we do?

"You need to take Mr. Bianchi and hide abroad right now! Someone leaked that he's at the villa, and they're already heading your way!"

Daniela cut her eyes over to me. "I know exactly who leaked it."

She pulled out her phone and started a livestream. For the first time in her life, the notorious underworld queen put her face on camera—but only for a split second before she flipped the lens to point it directly at me.

"I'm Daniela Falcone," she announced coldly to the screen. "As of today, I am washing my hands of the underworld. I'm completely stepping down.

"If you have a blood feud or a grudge to settle, take it up with him. Everything I did in the past was at his command. I'm done with him, so he's all yours to deal with now."

I drew a ragged breath. "I spent three years taking knives for Luca. And now you're throwing me to the wolves to die for you?"

Daniela yanked me up by my collar and dragged me out of the courtyard, hauling me all the way out to the main road.

She threw me onto the street like trash. As she turned her back on me, she left me with one final, icy remark. "You brought this entirely on yourself. Whether you live or die now is up to fate."

That was the last time I ever saw her back.

Cold and detached.

Barely ten minutes after she vanished, a mob of her rivals converged on me from every direction. They tore into me, unleashing years of pent-up rage and bloodlust. Not a single person showed a shred of mercy.

They sliced through the tendons in my wrists and ankles, shattered my legs, and plunged knife after knife into my chest. They screamed about avenging their brothers, their families, and their friends, gripping my jaw to force an apology out of me.

But the pain didn't seem to register anymore. I only stared blankly up at the brilliant blue sky.

I was glad that, right before I died, I got to see such a vast expanse of blue. There wasn't a single cloud in sight.

It looked exactly like the day I first arrived in this world.

"Mission failed. Initiating wipe-out protocol."

The System's mechanical voice echoed in my mind. "In one hour, all traces of your identity will be wiped clean. Matteo Linari will be completely erased from this world."