Chapter 63

**Lily**

Tommaso asked if I had something I wanted to say to Matteo. I contemplated for a few seconds, but I decided on “I love you”. I didn’t fully understand why I said those words. I felt a lot of things towards Matteo at the moment, not in the least because Tommaso had been putting ghosts in my head. But I did still love Matteo.

Valeria had told me how important destroying the Brunos was to them, and I understood it. I had felt the same because of what they had done to my mom. I couldn’t blame him for choosing his business over me. I wanted to, but I couldn’t. I was in too deep.

I hadn’t expected that Tommaso would go crazy over those three words. He started beating me like crazy. I tried to curl up in a ball, which of course wasn’t possible because I was hanging. All I could really do was endure and breathe through it. But it hurt so much! And Tommaso didn’t stop ever. He kept punching my stomach and I just screamed. The pain!

It seemed to last for hours, and Tommaso just kept going. I felt my eyes roll to the back of my head and it got all black in front of my eyes.

I don’t know how long I had been out of it. When I came to, I felt water dripping from my face onto the rest of my body.

“Glad to have you joining us again.”, Tommaso said viciously, as he walked around me. I didn’t really register anything, it was like I was looking at everything as a third person. Then he slapped me in my face again.

“Focus here, bitch.”, he said harshly. Then for no reason he started to beat me again. I just screamed in agony, and black as appearing in front of my eyes again.

“Tommaso. Stop it.”, I heard another man say with authority in his voice. Tommaso stopped punching me to look up to the other man.

“You don’t get to tell me what to do.”, He said angrily, and punched me again.

“Watch it son, I’m still in charge for now.”, he said, as he motioned some guards to pull Tommaso away from me. Next, he told them to get me off the hook in the ceiling. I was glad to be able to have my arms down that I didn’t care that they threw me on the floor.

“Besides, I want to give you some more information that you can use. Because your way is not working obviously. You keep beating the woman, but Matteo is still not giving in.

“Fuck you!”, Tommaso spat to the man. He flew at him ready to pounce on him, but the guards held him off. I guess that man had more authority within the famiglia than Tommaso thought.

“Matteo is not going to give in. He wants us destroyed, Tommaso. He wants us dead for what Nero did to his parents. He will not stop before he reached his goal.”, the man said as he sat down in a chair. “The only way you might get what you want, is by using the information that I have for you.”

I lay in the middle of the room, on the floor, but they seemed to have forgotten about me. I was taking advantage of this peace to catch my breath. I tried to lift my head to look at my body, but I couldn’t. It felt like Tommaso had broken my body.

My body felt empty, weird. I knew without looking that the baby was not there anymore. Rationally, it couldn’t be there anymore, considering how Tommaso beat me. He kept punching me until I blacked out. I don’t even know if he continued after that. But my body was occupied with coping physically, so that I didn’t feel anything. I’m sure the mental pain will come later.

“You need to know that she is your sister.”, the man said. I heard that. It couldn’t be true. There was no cell in my body that was even remotely like him. There is no way we have the same genetics. No way.

“What the fuck are you saying?”, Tommaso yelled, being restrained by some guys.

“Lily here is my daughter. You are my son.”, the man said. “You have different mothers though.” So, that means that this man must be Mario then. It was weird to get confirmation on my derived conclusion. It was even weirder to get it laying on the floor, bloody and bruised.

“I’m not thick!”, Tommaso was angry, but he was calming down. The guards were no longer having to use full force to keep him down.

“You keep saying that, but you are not very smart either.”, Mario sneered. “Use that fact. You have been breaking Lily down. Use that she is a Bruno against Matteo.”

“What are you suggesting, father?”, Tommaso said, mockingly.

“I will explain when Lily is conscious again.”, he sneered, and he walked out again. I tried to stay as still as I could. Obviously, they hadn’t noticed that I was awake again, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to tell them.

I don’t really know how I got back here. I was back in the prison cell. I don’t know if I blacked out again, or if my brain just shut down, or if I actually fell asleep. It wasn’t much, but at least I got some peace in here. There was no way my body could heal in one night. Tommaso had beaten me too much to do so.

I tried to move but stopped immediately. It hurt. It hurt like hell. My entire torso just hurt too much to even move a little. My arms hurt from hanging on them for hours. My legs hurt from Tommaso’s kicks. Maybe only my little toe was without injury. I decided to stay as I was, for however long that was going to be.

The door opened, and I recognized the men walking in as guards. I groaned a little as they walked up to me and picked me up by my arms, dragging my legs over the floor. They dropped me on a chair in front of a table with some food. For a minute I forgot all my injuries and ate. Granted, it was dry toast and water, but it tasted like strawberries in chocolate and champagne to me. My stomach growled at the first food in many hours entered it, and I devoured it completely.

“Glad to see you like it.”, the man that sounded like Mario said. I looked up slightly with my mouth stuffed, afraid he was going to take the food away. Or even worse, he would start beating me.

“Don’t worry, the food is yours. And I only want to talk.”, he said. I looked at him, waiting for him to continue. I was apprehensive about what he was going to say. I doubted it was going to be any good for me.

“Do you know who I am?”, he asked me. I shook my head slightly. I did, but then he thought I was out.

“Mario Bruno, nice to meet you.”, he said. He sounded too nice, too kind. “I know you talked to Jelena.”, he said out of nowhere. I looked up instantly.

“Her neighbor told me. We have spies everywhere, Lily. You need to be more careful.”, he sounded like he was reprimanding a child. I suppose, in a way he was though.

“I think you have already figured out by now that I am your father.”, he said. He was really convinced that I knew. Which I did, so he predicted right.

“How do you know?”, I asked him. He didn’t seem surprised that I spoke, or at that question at all. He just chose to ignore it completely.

“The fact that I am your father means that you are a Bruno. Whether you like it or not.”, he continued to lecture me. I sure as hell didn’t want to be a Bruno if it meant that I should act like Tommaso.

“And now, with Nero gone, you can get to the top of the Bruno famiglia easily. Tommaso is too arrogant, so he will fail. You, my dear, have the brains you need for that role.”, Mario stated. I was shocked by the way he just dismissed his own son. And shocked at the ease with which he just offered me that position. A position I didn’t want. At all.

“I’m more than happy to welcome you into the famiglia.”, he continued. “There is only one thing you would need to do.”

There is the one thing I was waiting for. The one thing that I should do to get out of this shithole.

“You only need to kill Matteo.”, he said nonchalantly. “If you don’t, we continue the torture until Matteo gives in. Or he decides he won’t ever, and we just kill you.”