The Lily Underground

20.

"Why would the Italians blame you for our mother's death?"

"Because the Italians have wanted war for years, what they did yesterday, killing one of our own in our home, would normally mean war between all mafias against the Italians. Between mafias there is a code you can't kill someone, if you don't have a reason to".

"So by framing you for the death of our mother they could justify killing Evelyn?"

"You're right that's exactly, what their plan was"

"So what's their end game Zack?"

"It's very simple, power", "The Italians would turn the world into hell if necessary in order to gain more power and they need a war between us and them."

"What about the other mafias do they believe you killed mom, have they chosen sides?"

Zack looked at me intensely "it's complicated", "our allies believe that we had nothing to do with it, but the ones supporting the Italian mafia blame us, and then there are the ones who havn't chosen sides yet."

By now Ava and Jace had left the table and gone to Ava's room. Right now Ava didn't need to hear all of this, but to be with her brother alone. Niko, Liam and Xander shortly left to Ava's room as well after all they were family, and they had to be there for each other. If only I didn't have this weird feeling in my chest, cause I wanted my brothers to be here sitting at the table, while they told me all of this. I quickly pushed aside those feelings, after all they had lost a mother.

"So the Italians want to take over your mafia is that how it is?"

Zack nodded "that's also why we brought you home, cause if the Italians had found you before we did, well they would probably have taken you hostage and used it against us"

I know that Zack didn't mean what he said in a mean way, but to my ears it sounded like they would never have looked for me, if it wasn't because of the Italians, was it just because they were afraid of their empire falling that they even thought about me?

"So what's my role here? Am I just going to stay inside this house forever or?"

Dad hadn't talked for a while and had just been observing me and Zack's conversation, "well my dear, our idea was that yes you would mostly stay at home, while we got control of this situation also if you do leave the house take one of your brothers with you"

I the Lily had to ask permission to leave a house? "you're kidding me, right?"

"No I'm dead serious, I can't loose more family"

For a second I wanted to scream, tell them that I am the Lily someone everyone feared, but I also know that if I do tell them that part of my life, may be ripped away from me and that they would never allow me to step foot in a ring, but truly would it even be possible now that I wasn't even allowed to leave the house?

Without a word, I left the dining table, leaving my dad and Zack alone. Enough was enough, there was no escape, my life was forever in danger more than it had been when I was fighting underground and there was nothing I could do.

...

I had been laying in bed for hours just thinking if I had taken the right decision about leaving everything I had in New York, in exchange for a family that was perfect in my dreams but in reality far from the kind of family I had dreamed about.

It was three am and I still hadn't fallen asleep plus, my stomach was starting to weird make noises, I hadn't eaten anything the whole day, there was just too much sadness everywhere to even feel hungry.

I left my room and went to the kitchen planning on making a sandwich. When I got there Jace was there as well sitting on one of the counter chairs.

"Trouble sleeping?"

"No I didn't have anything to eat", "what about you how are you holding up?"

I had been looking in the fridge for some food, and when finally looked at Jace, tears were streaming down his face, he didn't sob or cry but his pain could be seen. Without saying a word hugged him.

"Loosing someone you love isn't easy, it doesn't really get better, but one day you'll be able to just live with the pain".

I pulled away from the hug, and for a moment my eyes met his brown. We stood like that, starring in each other's eyes and for a moment time stopped.

Realizing that we had stood like that for longer than normal, I quickly made my sandwich and went back up to my room, where I tried to shake off the feeling I was left with after my encounter with Jace.