TRUST NO ONE
1104 Words
They found a camera under her pillow, and immediately unplanted it.
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After the event, Naomi returned back to her suit at night and found a written note, alongside a rose, beside her door.
It reads;
Ronaldo Marcioano: Marry me or I bring you down.
Naomi stared at the note for a long time, unveils it, the handwriting bold and different from Ronaldo’s.
Not him.
She held unto the thorns of the red rose so tightly that it pierced deeply in her hands, and it cost her to bleed. Proof that this wasn’t a dream. It was all real.
She wasn’t just being Pressured.
She was being hunted.
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By morning, the note was locked in her safe and her security team had swept the suite. No signs of forced entry. No traces. Just the rose, the note, and an open balcony that had been locked the night before.
“It’s an inside job,” her head of security muttered. “Someone let them in.”
Naomi’s skin jitters.
If her people had to do this, she had no one.
Not even herself.
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That afternoon, she met Diego Marciano at a Restaurant. He had requested the meeting through a mutual contact, claiming it was “urgent” and “off business.” She agreed, but only on neutral ground.
He was already seated when she arrived, Calm and Handsomely charming in a red velvet suite.
“Naomi,” he said with a smile that revealed his teeth. Starring deeply into her eyes.
Naomi folding her hands neatly on the table. “Cut the charm. What do you want?”
Diego’s smile fades deemly.
“I came to warn you.”
Naomi stares at him feeling concerned.
He leaned forward, his voice low. “Don’t marry him.”
“I haven’t said I would.”
“You’re thinking about it,” he said. “I can see it.”
Naomi held his gaze. “Tell me why I shouldn’t.”
“Because Ronaldo doesn’t love people. He uses them. He breaks them.”
Naomi smiles fakishly. “Funny. That’s exactly what I've been hearing about you.”
Diego chuckled, but there was no humor in it. “You think I’m the enemy? I tried to keep you out of this.” I apologized after what happened, Diego slams.
“This is my company. My family. I was born into this war.”
He shook his head. “No, Naomi. You were born into "Legacy and Power". But this? This is something else. The moment you marry him, you become a puppet.”
“Then why don’t you stop him?”
“I tried,” Diego said. “But he’s got someone backing him. Someone with money. Influence. They want Rossman and they want you.”
The waitress interrupted, placing their drinks on the table. Naomi barely touched hers.
“You’re saying Ronaldo’s not working alone?”
“He never is.”
Naomi leaned back. “Then who is it?”
Diego looked out of her gaze, 'whispers' “Denica.”
That name again. Like a poison in a glass of juice.
“She’s gone,” Naomi whispered.
“No,” Diego said confidently. “She’s just getting started.”
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Later that night, Naomi attended a gala at the New York Public Library another fundraiser, another business bodies. But tonight, she didn’t feel like herself.
She felt like a target!
Everyone she spoke to felt like a trap, every handshake felt like a test. Every whisper behind her back sounded like her name.
And then she saw him.
David Marciano.
Standing alone by a marble pillar, dark suit, no tie. Watching her.
Their eyes met across the crowd.
He didn’t smile.
Neither did she.
She walked to him like it was okay with her.
“You always stand in shadows?” she asked.
He looked at her. Really? Look, “I don’t belong in the light.”
“Neither do i,” Naomi said softly.
He studied her a moment longer. "I'm sorry for what's happening to you."
Since I met you all, Naomi says,
And now, “He’s pushing you.”
“I’m pushing back.”
“You can’t trust him.”
“I can’t trust any of you,” she says, then caught herself. Her voice had drawn attention. She stepped closer, lowering it. “Why do you all keep warning me? If I’m just some puppet?”
David’s voice was like broken bottles. “Because I tried to love her once. Denica. I know what she’s capable of. Ronaldo doesn’t. He still thinks she can be controlled.”
“And you think I can’t?” Naomi asked.
David leaned in, she feels his breath on her cheek. “I think you’re already in too deep.”
She felt something twist in her chest.
“Then help me,” she said.
He blinked, surprised. “What?”
“Help me expose them. Whoever’s behind this. Help me take them down.”
David hesitated, then nodded once. “Let's meet tomorrow, by 12:00am Midnight.”
Naomi nodded. “I will be there.”
As she turned to leave, David held on to her wrist gently.
“I hope you know,” he said, “this isn’t just business anymore.”
Naomi swallowed hard. “I know.”
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That night, Naomi returned to her suite.
She poured herself a glass of wine. Opened her windows. Let the fresh cool breeze blow her deeply down her soul.
Lost in the last words she recounted from David's conversation and every time they had together.
She picked up her phone.
No messages.
But then,
A knock at the door.
She walked toward it cautiously, quietly on the marble floor.
Another knock.
She opened the door slowly.
Ronaldo stood there, in black, eyes dark and unreadable.
He stepped inside without asking.
Naomi stepped back. “What do you want?”
He pulled something from his coat pocket and dropped it in her hands.
A photograph.
Naomi stared at it and the blood drained from her face.
It was her.
Standing with her father, ten years ago.
Smiling.
And behind them… was Denica.
Younger. Smiling. A part of the family.
“I didn’t know,” Naomi whispered.
“You were chosen,” Ronaldo said.
“For what?”
He stepped closer.
“To end what they started.”
Suddenly, the lights in the suite blinks then died.
The photo slipped from Naomi’s fingers.
In the pitch black, a voice echoed through the darkness.
Not Ronaldo’s.
A woman’s.
“He’s lying to you.”
And then
the window shattered.
- Writer
