This chapter is dedicated to @butterbtscri for literally commenting for me to post another chapter every single day <3😅Sorry you didn't get it until now but hope it was worth it!



"Don't get sad, get even," -Taylor Swift

~Recap~ (Lila's POV)

I fall back into Angelo's chest, eyes not opening in fear of seeing my brother's gazes.

The car is silent.

No one says anything.

No one makes a move.

Eventually, Sandro sighs.

He starts the car again and pulls out of the lane, continuing to drive to our original destination.

The car is silent, the world is silent.

And the only thing I hear is Angelo's heart beating.

Thump thump.

Thump thump.

Thump thump.

~Now~ (Lila's POV)

We eventually pull up to the restaurant and see the other car in the parking lot.

They've probably been waiting a while for us.

All of a sudden, I'm immediately feel an immense sense of guilt that I caused such a ruckus in the car.

The disappointment in the eyes of the closest person I have to a father.

The disappointment in the eyes of my brothers.

The disappointment in the eyes of the only family I have left...

The car remains deathly silent. No one moves. No one speaks.

Until my stomach rumbles loudly...

Why! Why does it rumble at the worst times! I swear to God!

Alessandro sighs from the front of the car. "Let's go have dinner then."

We all slowly clamber out the car, walking silently through the vast doors of the restaurant.

When we reach the table, we're greeted by the lovely voices of our so called dearest brothers. "Where the hell have you been? We've been waiting for you for 30 minutes!" Sandro exclaims.

He looks around at all of us, his eyes lingering on me and my probably red eyes a little longer, before they land on Elijah.

"Oh my god." He says, his hands falling across his mouth in shock and horror.

Now that I look at it, his face kind of does look pretty bad. Blood is gushing out of his nose, staining his white shirt a deep red. Bruises and cuts line all around his face, not to mention the black eye that looks to be forming.

Sandro rushes forward, taking Elijah's face between his hands and checking him over. "Get off me Sandro! I'm fine!" Elijah whines, blushing red on his neck.

The rest of our brothers are now standing, wanting to know the answer as well.

"So...? What happened? We need to know who did this to our little brother!" Lorenzo exclaims.

The brothers that had been in the car with me subtly glance at me, wondering what I'm going to say.

I open my mouth, but as soon as I start speaking, I'm interrupted by Sandro. "He was jumped by some gang guys when we were getting petrol. There were a lot of them and we didn't know he was in trouble until they had done that to him." He says, gesturing to Elijah's busted-up face. "I've handled it though." He says, warning evident in his face. A warning to not talk about it anymore.

Gio sighs in a mix of... annoyance and relief? "Okay then. Let's go get dinner, shall we? Someone looks hungry over here." He says, putting an arm around my shoulders and leading me into our private room.

We all clamber into the dining room and choose seats, the same seats as our ones at home. We pick up the menu and glance at it, hoping to wipe away this unwanted tension.

After we've all ordered, the hushed conversations start, everyone still cautious and worked up about before.

The tension in all my siblings' shoulders is evident.

I look around the restaurant, getting lost in the painting on the walls and the skylight displaying the city above me, lost in my own thoughts.

Once again, like every other night, the sky was alive with stars that glistened like a thousand suns. It was like a dark canvas freckled with a million droplets of white paint. An endless ocean, an icy wasteland, a river of stars.

The world seemed as if it was fast asleep. Well, almost asleep. All except for the bustling of people coming home from a long day of work and people going out for the evening.

Is it just me or is there a strange sense of Deja vu?

Before I could think about it further, Matteo's voice pipes up from across the table, calm and collected as usual. "But what I don't understand is why were you getting petrol? Your car is electric, remember?"

The room goes dead silent.

"Fuck", I hear Sandro whisper under his breath.

Same bro, same.

I don't know what to say. What do do. What to think.

And it seems neither does the rest of the room.

Why doesn't Elijah just rat me out already?

Shit I don't know what to do anymore.

I need to tell the truth. I know I do. But I also know that I'm alone in a room with 7 men. 7 men who may be my brothers, but most of them also blame me for the death of their loved ones. They're all at least a foot above me in height and could definitely crush me with their fingers.

7 against 1 is definitely not fair odds, even if I am a world-renowned assassin.

Fuck.

"Well, the truths gotta come out one way or another, right?" I say quietly, looking at Sandro and shrugging, waiting for approval.

After he apprehensively nods, I begin talking. "Umm... I don't really know where to begin." I look down at my lap, hair covering my face and falling around my shoulders like a curtain, sheltering me from the world.

"I guess Lijah just said some stuff that pissed me off. A lot. And then, the next thing I know, my fists are beating the crap out of his face." I say, laughing weakly at the end.

"What the actual fuck! You beat up your own brother! First your parents and twin, now Elijah's next?! YOU FUCKING PSYCHO!" Lorenzo shouts, storming up out of his chair and veins popping out of his forehead.

"LORENZO. SHUT THE FUCK UP AND SIT DOWN. RIGHT FUCKING NOW!" Sandro shouts.

The look on Sandro's face would've been enough to make anyone cry. Hell, it would make anyone combust into flames and ashes right there.

"Firstly" he begins, his voice calm but sharp like steel, "I specifically TOLD you ALL that you will not blame Lila for any of this. NONE of it. She was just a kid. A FUCKING KID. YOUR SISTER. She did absolutely nothing wrong. So the quicker that gets into your thick fucking skulls, the better." He says, glaring at Lorenzo.

"Secondly, that is not the full story. Elijah was saying awful, despicable things about her. I don't blame her for the way she stood up for herself, for arguing back, and I certainly don't blame her for attacking him. It was well deserved." He continues.

The room is silent once again.

Fucking hell it seems there's no in between with this family. It's either complete chaos with everyone shouting or complete silence.

Awkward fucking silence.

"What..." Matteo clears his throat. "What did he say?" He asks, looking up at Sandro.

"He said... he was blaming her for everything. He was going on about how she should be respecting him for being older than her, even after everything he... everything all of you, have done to her. So, respectfully, she got a small amount of revenge for the hell you've all put her through these past few years."

I'm quiet, their eyes all on me now. "But... But I shouldn't have done it anyways. I shouldn't have hurt you or attacked you. I'm better than that." I take in a deep breath, trying to keep my heart calm. "And... and I know I could've tried harder to save her. I could've done more. I could've fought more and fo-"

Sandro stands up from his chair and turning mine round to face him, before bending down onto the floor so that we're at eye-level. He places his hand on my right cheek, cutting me off from my speech.

"Lila. Hey, sweet girl. Look at me. Please" He says. Slowly, I lift my eyes to meet his gaze, his stony stare greatly softened. He brushes some of the hair out of my eyes, revealing my face fully to him.

"Listen to what I say, okay? You're the most important person in my life and I never should have left you alone. I never should have trusted those idiots to raise you, I should have continued to raise you like I had been doing myself. A good father doesn't leave his kids to be raised by someone else when he had the potential to raise them well himself. I should've tried harder. And I'm sorry. But, you have nothing to apologize for. You did nothing wrong, okay? You did absolutely nothing wrong. Nothing. They were meant to go. She was meant to go. It was their time. And it was not yours. And that's okay. You tried, I know you tried so so hard. But, there was nothing you could do." Tears start flooding my cheeks at this. Rainfalls once again strike their way down my face, gushing and gushing. But he continues, wiping away some of the tears with the pads of his thumbs. "But YOU, you did absolutely nothing wrong. There was nothing you could do. There never was. And I'm so sorry you were blamed. I'm so so sorry. If I could take all this pain from you, I would do it in a heartbeat. And I am so so sorry I left you when you needed me. I am so sorry you had to go through all of this alone. But it wasn't your fault. And I'll keep telling you that, every day, hell every second of every day if you need me to. I won't stop until you understand and believe it."

At this point I'm sobbing. Sobbing and wailing violently.

He brins my face to his chest, letting me cry into it. I clutch is shirt in my hands, not caring that I'm making it all wrinkled. He keeps one hand on the back of my head whilst the other rubs gentle circles onto my back whilst he gently shushes me and rocks me side to side. "It's okay. It's okay." He repeats.

I listen to his heartbeat as the tears begin to stop.

My eyes begin to droop once again, having everything taken out of me. Between the fight in the car, the panic attack and now this? There's not an ounce of energy left in me.

But before I can fall asleep, I manage to whisper out "I missed you"...

And with that, my mind goes blank as I fall into what I hope is a dreamless sleep.

Hi all!

So sorry for the late reply again!

I fucked up my exams, like really badly RIP😭😭😭. So I'm retaking them all again :(

But as soon as they're done, I'm gonna be updating so so so much more.

Hope you're all okay and hopefully see you soon!