Killed On Purpose

14

Silvio

Her whole body was shaking and I tried keeping her calm, I really did, but I couldn't no matter how hard I held her. Her dad stood in front of us, frozen and silent, and just watched for a moment as Willa cried. At first, he thought she was kidding him when she barged in out of the blue and interrupted our conversation about how Lazzaro was basically fucked, but as soon as he saw her tear-stained cheeks, he knew it was real.

"Baby, calm down. Breathe." Andrew took her from me and ran his hands along her arms once he came to his senses, comforting her and trying to calm her down, too. Willa's breathing was irregular, with shaky exhales and a few quick and short inhales. "In and out, honey. Slowly," he told her and waited for Willa to imitate his own example of inhales and exhales.

He was trying to calm her down and stay calm himself, but I could see he was hanging on by a thread. What she had just told him was unbelievable. Liam had been missing for a few years. When I researched her whole family a while back, I couldn't dig up anything on him since he was in the army and was sent on a classified special mission. He was considered missing in action, but to be fair I assumed he had already been dead and that his body just hadn't been found. But Andrew believed her. He was just trying to get her to breathe properly so she could explain this bomb she had just thrown over all of us.

Vince appeared a moment later with the USB Tito gave Willa earlier in his hand, but didn't go further than the doorway of the dining room. We shared a look and I instantly knew whatever gave Willa the evidence that Liam was alive was in that USB and that Tito had been in this mess since the beginning. 

Willa finally began breathing more normally and managed to stop crying. Andrew sat her on the chair that I was previously sitting on and told Vince to get her a glass of water, which he obeyed immediately. He came back, Willa took a few sips and sighed deeply.

"Now, speak, honey. What do you mean 'Liam's alive' ?"

"When Silvio and I went to Tito's he-he gave me a USB right before we left. He said that Liam said hi, but I thought he was trying to mess with me. I asked Vince earlier to open th-the file. It was a video of him, dad," her voice broke but she held onto her composure. "They made him kill a kid. They treated him so bad and they hurt him..."

Andrew's sharp intake of breath was followed by a set of curse words and absentmindedly running his hand through his hair. He stood up from his crouching pose in front of Willa.

"Stay with her," he told me first and turned to Vince. "Show it to me,"

I nodded right before they went upstairs. Willa sat quietly on the chair, but she was still distressed so I crouched in front of her and took her hands in mine. "You okay?" I knew she wasn't and I knew this situation was everything but okay but I had to hear her answer it. Willa sniffled, then nodded and looked up, her glassy eyes meeting my worried ones.

"Silvio, it was awful," her voice was barely a whisper. I squeezed her hands softly before she continued. "They're mentally torturing him. They made him kill a kid, Silvio. A kid no older than Christopher. And they did that just to prove a point that they're stronger than us. That they could make our soldiers do anything they want."

I had too many questions running through my head. Who exactly were they? Who was holding him captive? I opened my mouth to ask her to tell me what she'd seen, to describe these people to me, but as quick as that thought came to my mind it disappeared just as quickly. She needed someone to be there for her now, not ask questions.

I brought her shaky hands and kissed the back of them. "We'll get him, okay? If he's alive I'm sure Andrew won't rest until he brings him home. We'll find out, yeah?"