Chapter 67

**Matteo**

I sat beside her bed for hours, just looking at her face. I knew she wasn’t going to wake up because she needed to recover first, but I wanted to be there. I felt I needed to be there. Vita had tried a couple of times to get me to leave, but I refused.

Minutes turned into hours, hours into days. I think it was 3 days in when Chiara came to talk to me. “Matteo, you need to know.”, Chiara clearly didn’t know how to say what she wanted to. “We want to take the medication that keeps her asleep out of her system.”, Chiara started. I looked at her expectantly. “You need to know that her body decides when she wakes up, if she does.”, she finished softly.

I didn’t want to think about the possibility of Lily not waking up at all. So, I kept hoping and praying. Days turned into a week when I finally saw movement. It wasn’t one of those huge surprise moments you always see on tv. It was a small movement, and it grew gradually. But finally, Lily woke up. Groggy and unable to breathe because of the tube in her throat.

I was happy, incredibly relieved as well.

Lily had been awake for a couple of days now, but still recovering in her bed. She hadn’t said a word to me, and it was killing me. I heard her answer all Chiara’s questions, so I know it wasn’t that she was physically unable to. It was just that she didn’t want to talk to me. I couldn’t blame her either, because of all the things I had done to her.

“Matteo?”, I heard Chiara ask and she motioned to the door with her head. I followed her outside and braced myself for what she had to say. “I’m ready to release Lily from the clinic, but she was quite adamant about not wanting to stay with you.”

I nodded sadly. I expected that to happen. The problem was that there was no other place as suitable for Lily to recover as my house. Her apartment was out of the question. It was too far away for Chiara to be there quickly, and there was no one who could keep an eye on her.

“I will try to speak with her.”, I sighed. Chiara grabbed my arm when I wanted to walk back into the room.

“Maybe you could ask Valeria, or Guilia and Vita to come visit her? Or her friends? I know you don’t like outsiders here, but maybe they can talk some sense into her?”, Chiara suggested. I nodded, not sure I wanted to share her with others. Or whether I just didn’t want to find out it was me she hated.

“Matteo. Either you ask them, or I will.”, Chiara threatened kindly.

I walked back into the room, suddenly frustrated by the situation. “Do you hate me?”, I asked Lily sharply. Her head turned to me immediately.

“I don’t know. But I don’t like you. You wanted me to be raped because you wanted to protect your precious business! How would you feel?!”, her voice raised until she was yelling by the end. I slumped in the chair, defeatedly, running my hand through my hair.

“How can I make that up to you?”, I whispered.

“God, I don’t know. How do you make it up to someone who had her baby beaten out of her stomach?!”, she continued to yell. Her words pierced through my heart, but I couldn’t argue with her. It was all true. Crushed, I left her hospital room.

“Vita?”, I asked her as she entered my office. Vita looked angry, and I just hoped that for once it wasn’t my doing. “I need your help.”

“Yes, you do.”, she said firmly, and she sat down in front of me. “You’re going to need to crawl and kiss the ground that woman walks on for the rest of your life, and it still won’t be enough.”

Great, so it was me she was angry with.

“Chiara had asked me to come and visit Lily. You know, the woman you told wasn’t ready to see anyone? Turns out she just doesn’t want to talk to you!”, Vita didn’t hold back as she tore into me. I ran my hand through my hair in desperation and guilt.

“I know. I shouldn’t have done that.”, I admitted softly.

“No, you shouldn’t have.”, Vita echoed. “You need to make it up to her, Matteo. I don’t understand how, but she still loves you after everything. Right now, you remind her too much of everything that happened.”

“Can you ask Valeria and Guilia to visit her as well? And her friends?”, I asked her, hoping she would help me. Vita nodded.

“She wants to go home.”, Vita stated. I nodded.

“I know, but I’m not sure how. It’s too far out for Chiara to visit her.”, I told her. I have been over all the possibilities in my head already a hundred times. At least. Vita puts her hand up to quiet me.

“That’s not what she is asking for.”, Vita interrupts me. “She wants to go home to get some of her stuff. Lily is not dumb, you know. She is aware of all your reasons for wanting her to recover here.”

I feel stupid now. Listening was not my strength. “Okay, that should be fine, I guess. As long as Chiara agrees.”, I said, my guilt resonating in my voice.

“You better make it up to her!”, Vita’s voice rang through my office as she walked out. That I knew already. I would probably be dead if it wasn’t for her. She shot herself in order not to kill me, she could have chosen differently and be more selfish. I think just about everyone would have chosen to be selfish in her position.

I was completely happy to wallow in my self-pity for a bit, when Ennio and Luciano entered my office. Ennio shot one glance at me, and he poured me a drink immediately. And one for Luciano and one for himself. They got comfortable in my office.

“What do you guys want from me?”, I asked them. There had to be a reason for them seeking me out like this.

“Nothing, just hiding from the wives.”, Luciano grinned. Ennio chuckled as he took a big gulp from his glass.

“They are on a rant about men being useless. I think they mean you, but I don’t want to risk it.”, Ennio grinned. A faint smile graced my lips. “Besides, we wanted to talk to you about Mario Bruno.”

“What about him?”, I asked them.

“He is still in our cell. We haven’t done anything with him yet, but my fingers are itching to torture him. There are a few things I want to try.”, Ennio grinned like a lunatic. When it came to torture, he was an actual lunatic.

“I figured that Lily deserved to get some answers. Mario is the only one still alive that could give her those.”, I shrugged. “After that, you can do with him what you want.”

I really didn’t care what came of him, as long as Lily got what she wanted from him, but it did trigger some questions. “What happened to their territories?”, I asked Ennio and Luciano.

“We got what we wanted of it, and left the rest to others.”, Ennio answered carelessly. “We did get their rolodex though. And I mean their actual, physical rolodex.”

Luciano grinned at the memory of the rolodex. “Most of it we knew already though.”

“It feels good to have revenge, finally. It didn’t quite go as planned, but we got what we wanted.”, Ennio grinned. He was right about that. The plan we had did not include Lily being tortured. But despite everything, the Brunos were gone now. It was what we had worked for. I just didn’t feel like a winner.