Chapter 43

**Lily**

Freshly showered, we went to the kitchen where some of the others were sitting. My headache was now coming back full force, and I longed for a big cup of coffee.

Immediately when I entered, Valeria handed me some coffee. And what’s worse, she laughed at me when I looked bewildered.

“Well, I thought you would need it after yesterday.”, she explained while she shrugged. I was thankful for it, but her comment made me wary. The laugh coming from Ennio made it even worse.

“What did I do?”, I asked softly to Matteo, even though I doubted whether I wanted to hear the answer.

“Nothing to worry about, bellisima.”, he answered, and he handed me some toast. Matteo sat down at the table to have his breakfast. Ennio couldn’t hold his laughter anymore when Renzo entered the kitchen. I gasped when I took in his black eye and his broken nose.

“What happened to you?”, I asked him stunned. Renzo glared at Matteo, who just shrugged and continued to eat his breakfast like nothing happened.

“Matteo happened.”, Renzo answered curtly. Wait, what?

“Why would he hit you?”, I asked shocked. What man would hit one of his best friends and wouldn’t even care about it the next day?

“Because he was touching you where he shouldn’t.”, Matteo answered calmly. Wow, possessive much?

“Yeah, and then you vomited on the dance floor.”, Ennio laughed hard. Oh my God. What did he just say? I couldn’t possibly feel more embarrassed than I did in this moment. My cheeks flushed to a bright red shade.

“Nothing to worry about, it happened to all of us at some time.”, Renzo said, slapping me on the shoulder. That action got him a glare from Matteo, and Renzo dropped his hand immediately. Meanwhile, I was still trying to sink into the floor to hide.

Matteo was grinning when he walked over to me and hugged me tightly. “Nothing to worry about, cara mia.”, he said.

“Well, anyway, I’m glad you two kissed and made up.”, Ennio said and just after he walked out of the kitchen. Matteo and I were fighting? I really needed to make myself stop drinking champagne, too many holes in my memory!

Later in the afternoon, Mattea dropped me off back home. We had been arguing for a few minutes because he wanted to come up with me, which I found stupid. It took me some time, but then I finally figured that he would not drop it, so I just gave up.

Matteo did tell me what Ennio’s last comment had been about because he wanted no lies between us. His words. He mentioned that he didn’t like to talk about his previous bed partners. His words again. That talking about that brought him back to a dark period that he wasn’t proud of. I had been pondering his words during the ride back home, but even though he said a lot, he didn’t really tell me anything. Something was holding him back from opening up to me, but then again so was I. So, I couldn’t blame him.

I opened the door to my house, and I took three steps in, and I stopped abruptly. Something was off, something didn’t feel right. I grabbed Matteo’s hand, and I must have bruised it given how tight I held it. Carefully, I walked to the living room.

I opened the door and I screamed from the top of my lungs and fell back against Matteo out of shock. Tears filled my eyes when I looked around my precious house. Everything was trashed, broken, and turned inside out. All my things were lying all over the place, pillows were slashed, and plates were broken. Paintings were torn off the walls and all the drawers were turned upside down.

Tears were streaming down my cheeks. My lovely home was violated, and I didn’t have a clue why. I didn’t have any valuables in here, only things of emotional value. I took a few tentative steps into the mess, careful not to step on anything on the floor. Unconsciously I was taking stock of things that were gone, but all my things seemed to be there. A lot of it was broken, but there.

Matteo was quiet, but he was by my side the entire time. I was grateful for his hand on my back, it gave me comfort. I found the photo albums, the things I took from my mom, even the letters and papers were still there. In my bedroom, I found some of the dresses torn on the floor, and my beautiful diamond earrings were lying broken on the floor. I guess it wasn’t the end of the world, but I was somber about it anyway.

“Are you okay, cara mia?”, Matteo asked caringly. His eyes conveyed empathy, which was warming my heart. His hand stroked my back. I nodded, lightly sobbing.

“We’ll get it fixed again, don’t worry about that. Are you missing anything?”, he asked softly. I shook my head.

“I don’t think so, but some of it is damaged or destroyed. I think the dresses and the earrings were the most valuable things.”, I answered, my tears were slowly drying up. Matteo was looking closely at the earrings.

“Lily, do you know someone who would want to bug you?”, he asked out of nowhere. I looked up in surprise.

“What are you talking about?”, I asked, as I walked up to him. I saw him point at pieces of electronics between the earrings. I was astonished when he mentioned that. I had no idea whether he was right about the bug, but there was something there that definitely didn’t belong in earrings. Why would anyone want to listen to me?

It was surreal. I was expecting James Bond to pop up any second now. This was action movie material, not my life! But no matter how hard I pinched myself, I was still here, and it was my reality.

In the meantime, Matteo had called the police. He had stepped out to give me some privacy when they arrived. The visit of the police was tedious, but necessary. It took a long time before everything was documented. Everything was being photographed and written down. They asked questions, but I wasn’t here this weekend, so I didn’t see anything.

I was tired after they left, it drained my energy completely. When Matteo came back, I felt relieved, but only then did I realize I couldn’t stay at home that night.

“Did you get some of the stuff you want to bring? Clothes or something?”, he asked me. I looked up to him curiously. “Well, you are staying with me, right?”, he asked, sounding uncertain all of a sudden. It probably was the first time since we entered the door here that I smiled.

We were walking out of the building towards Matteo’s car, which he had parked out of the way in an alley because he couldn’t find any place to park close by. Matteo was helping me into the car when I heard a loud plop next to me. It sounded like fireworks, but looking around there were no fireworks nearby. I looked around to find the source of the noise.

Matteo reacted fast and stayed calm. He pushed me down to the ground and pulled something from his back pocket. I don’t know what it was, and it was as if everything was playing in slow motion. Like the sounds came from somewhere else.

I heard Matteo tell me to stay down and get in the car as quickly as possible. Within seconds, I noticed Luciano and Nino behind us, guns in their hands. Next, Matteo was shooting at someone and so were Luciano and Nino. Then I realized that it wasn’t fireworks that I heard, but bullets being fired. Luciano held me down as he helped me get in the car.

“Get in, you’ll be safe there.”, he shouted to make sure I heard him. I did as he told me. Luciano stayed outside but pulled something from underneath the car. He threw it to Matteo and Nino, who started firing faster at a slow driving car. I heard bullets hitting the car and the glass, but they didn’t seem to penetrate the material. Only then did I get scared about the guys out there, these were real bullets, and they could get hurt!

What seemed like hours were only minutes in real time. A drive by shooting, that’s what it was, but it didn’t register until much later. And the man I was falling in love with, was shooting back with a very real gun. It also didn’t seem like this was the first time he ever fired a gun.

They joined me in the car and got out of the alley as fast as humanly possible.

“Luciano, we need to get home.”, Matteo ordered. “Who was that?”, Matteo asked Nino. Matteo spoke with an authority that I had never heard from him before.

“Bruno.”, was his short answer. Matteo nodded. “They are getting more aggressive.”, Matteo stated. I couldn’t understand what they were talking about, but my mind was still stuck on Matteo with a gun in his hands. A gun he had never told me anything about. A shooting that didn’t seem like the first one ever either. Who was he? What was Matteo? And that did I get myself into?

I sighed, stuck in my thoughts. Was this because of my mom? Or was this because of work? Did Matteo get me in trouble? Was I in danger because of him, or was it the other way around?

Where was James Bond when you needed him?