LILLY

My nerves worked up badly. For three days straight I was noting down every instruction about being a Romano.

Lilly Romano is everything Lilly Hastings is not.
Strong.
Confident.
Cunning.
Fearless.
Smart.
Beautiful.

Lilly Hastings is the opposite of those words in every freaking way.

I stand in front of the mirror, wearing the dress Romano chose for me. It was a long deep red gown. Sleeveless. A cut showing off the inner curves of my breast. My hair was kept down and curled at the ends. My eyes were shadowed bronze with sharp cat eyeliner. My lips were deep red, the same shade as my gown.
I wore diamond earrings, a diamond bracelet, and a diamond ring. My neck was bare but I felt an invisible noose around it that kept getting tighter and tighter.

Romano was already gone. He instructed me to get in the limo waiting downstairs and come to wherever the ball was.

I couldn't bail because my choices were taken from me by my captor. I couldn't stop him from touching me. I cannot stop him from kissing me. He wants kisses every minute and I let him have them as long as it means I am safe.
He wants to hold me every hour and I let him as long as it means he's happy.

His anger scares me. I don't know how long I am here, I don't know how long will he let me live.

♡

I reach this mansion in a big limo.
And as I get out, I have tall and buff security guards hiding me from everyone's view that were outside.

I was led to the back stairs of the mansion that I had to go up and then I'm standing in front of these white linen curtains with lights.

Was this my entrance? Was I to enter like a princess to the world of the mafia?
When I walk out, it will be official that I am a Romano. Even if I'm one on fake paper but I will be one in everyone's eyes.

Lilly Romano, wife of Carter Romano. Lilly Hastings is dead. She is nothing but a whisper in the wind.

I hear the music quiet down and then I hear his voice "I know it must comes as a shock to everyone here that I am a married man now," my spine went like steel. I was sweating because of anxiety. I don't know if I can do this at all and I'm so scared.

What if I fall and make a fool of myself? What if the bad men put a bullet between my brows because I'm not pretty enough?

What if—

"I would officially like you to meet my wife. Lilly Romano." His voice was like a soothing hurricane. It held a warning, it held power. It held possessiveness.

I take a deep breath, giving myself a minute or two and I walk out the curtains. The interior of the ball was gold in every shade and everyone wore black and white. I was the only one in red, standing out in the crowd.

I put my hand on the railing of the curved stairs and I look down at Romano standing there for me, waiting for me. A smirk on his lips as he takes what I'm wearing. Capturing the curves of my body with his eyes and I knew the thoughts that went inside his head. Sinful ones.

I softly walk down the stairs, making sure I'm stable in my black heels, and I reach down slowly. I try to muster up fake confidence but none came to me. I was freaking out that I might puke.

Everyone in this building is a bed man or woman. Eyes filled with seven sins of the world. Committing sins as if they enjoyed it.

When I'm on the last stairs, Romano takes a hold of my hand. I walk down the last one and he wraps my arm in his, leaning down to kiss behind my ear in front of everyone. Was this for show or was this instinct? I do not know.

I see the man in the middle of the crowd, Romano's father, clad in a double-breasted black suit. The man was handsome, beautiful even, but with a rotten heart just like his son.

We walked in the middle of the floor where everyone had a good view of me. Looking at me as if I was the expensive diamond of the night. Women eyed my ring and men eyed my breasts. Doesn't matter if they already had a date for the night. It made me feel like I was the sacrifice of the night.

Romano leads me to his father.
Rafael Romano looks at me with a smirk and hunger. I keep my eyes locked in his just like Romano wanted me to. He said that I don't dare look down in their presence. They're beneath me. They're the men that want me, not the other way around. So I do it. I lock eyes, and I smirk. I become a Romano.
Inside I was freaking out but outside I made it look like I was the powerful woman they were waiting on.

Romano smiles "I would like you to officially meet your daughter-in-law." Rafael Romano takes steps toward us and with a hand on my back, he leans down to kiss the side of my neck. It took everything in me to not shatter completely. I looked at Romano but he acted as if this was okay. That this was normal.
Rafael Romano whispers in my ear "Welcome to the mafia, Lilly."
When he leans back to look at me, I smile and nod my head in respect, showing him that I thank him which I do not at all.

I don't want to be here.

Romano talks with his father about something in another language while I look around. I was bored. I was terrified. I wanted to go home and get out of this suffocating dress. I wanted to lose the imaginary noose around my neck.

I just wanted to breathe.

Romano leads me to the middle of the floor and I meet more people. None of them kiss my neck or my shoulder, nor do they touch me as if they were not allowed to. I was thankful for that.
They just greet me from distance and nod their head at me.

Elijah walks up to us and nods at me and then looks at Romano. Romano asks "Everything safe for the night?" Elijah nods "Yeah. I check everything. But I am worried. Luca hasn't taken a step yet. He's too quiet." Romano is silent for a second then he says "If he's smart, he will stay quiet for the night."
I knew who they were talking about. The blonde guy who had me at knifepoint in the alley behind my apartment building. Demanding for Romano.

Elijah nods his head and then walks away but Romano looks stressed. Annoyed. He leads me up the stairs of the ballroom and as we're behind the white curtains again, he presses me to the wall. He pushes my hair behind my shoulder and with his hand, he cleans the side of my neck, the spot where his father kissed moments ago. He says "Do you have any idea how hard is it to keep my hands off of you?" I swallow "Anyone can walk in," he chuckles "I don't care."

He crouches down and pulls the slit of the dress till my legs are bared to him. He kisses up my thigh and I throw my head back on the wall, holding in a moan. I still wasn't used to him. My heart went crazy whenever he pulls something like this on me.

Then he stands up, grabs my face, and presses his lips to mine. He was careful in kissing me so my lipstick wouldn't smudge. I try saying it again "Carter, please, anyone can see us." He groans on my lips and then I gasp as I feel something at the corner of my eye. I look at the person and she was a gorgeous woman.
Her brows are raised at Romano but he grunts "Fuck off, Selena. I am busy." Then he presses his lips to mine again, his tongue darting in my mouth, tangling with mine. I knew the woman standing there and I wonder who was she that he knew.

His tongue is almost at my throat when I whimper at the feeling of it and then I saw the figure move again. She was gone.

Romano flinched when we hear a gunshot go off. He pulls back, his eyes are wide, and he swallows. His hands trembling on my cheeks and I grab his face, "No, no, no. Carter look at me," he was confused, and then he was sweating. Before he could drop to his knees, I flip us over and pinned him on the wall, "Look at me, Carter. You cannot panic, okay?" I sigh "Please, you cannot go blank." Tears are streaming down his eyes and I don't know what to do. I don't know how to handle this anymore.

I gulp and take a deep breath "Count with me, okay? From one." I cover his ear with my hands and I count with him "One," he doesn't speak at all. I try again, encouraging him "One,"

"T-t-two."

"Three,"

"Fo- fo— fuck."

"Four,"

"F- Five."

"Six,"

"S-sev- seven."

"Eight. Just two more and it'll all be okay."

"Nine."

I smile "You're doing good. Last one. Last number."

His bottom lip quivers "T-ten."

He rests his forehead on mine and we sigh together. These are the moments when he is so different to me. When he panics, when he's alone with me, when he kisses me— he is so damn different. It's like in these moments he's not a Romano. He's just Carter.

Just Carter.

The man who chuckles at me, the man who smiles and gazes at me. The man who plays with my hair and strokes my cheek, and holds me close. This is Carter.

The man who brings me nothing but pain is Romano.

When he leans back to look at me with soft eyes, I smile at him. I smile brightly for some reason and then there's a look on his face as if my smile is the most beautiful thing he's ever seen. He pulls me in for a hug and I flinch when another gunshot goes off. My headshots up to him but he doesn't look scared this time. He is angry.

We pull back the white curtain and walk out. I gag as I see what is in front of me. People are dead. All of them. It's quiet. No one is alive.

Romano pulls me behind him when a man walks out from the shadows in the corner of the room downstairs, clapping his hands. His claps are the only thing I can hear aside from my beating heart.

I peek over his shoulder and then the man looks at Romano with a smile. His arms open "You like it? The champagne did the trick. Shame that your dad escaped before I could poison him too." Romano doesn't say anything, he keeps me steady behind him. The blonde man, Luca, tilts his head "Shame that you and your fake wife haven't had any yet. This would've been a lot more fun." He walks over the bodies, something stepping on a woman's breast and sometimes stepping on a man's penis, smiling to himself. He looks back at us and I notice how sick he looked with eye bags under his eyes, and his cheekbone sharper. He was wearing black jeans and a black T-shirt. His blonde hair is messy.

Romano says "You killed them all just to get back at me?" Luca shakes his head "Oh, no. I killed them all to show you how I will kill her." Romano's jaw clenched and he holds me behind him as if making sure that I'm there, that I am alive. I squeeze his hands gently and his shoulders visibly relax.

Luca has this sinister smile on his face "You know how I wanna kill her, Carter?" He takes a gun out from the waist of his jeans and takes off the safety "I wanna kill your girl the way you killed her. The exact way you put a bullet in her while she cried in that cell. I know you remember all that too well." He points it at us "If not, would you like me to refresh your memory?" Romano smiles "Hurts, doesn't it? Killing us won't bring your father back to life." The smile on Luca's face is swiped off when he yells "Shut up! Shut the fuck up!" Romano shrugs "The genius behind those drugs and he couldn't protect himself. Man has millions and he left without it."

"He didn't leave! You killed him!"

My eyes go wide. Romano k-killed him?

Romano asks, a sinister smile on his face, "Did I? Care to share the details?" Luca's eyes well with tears "You burned him alive three nights ago."

Three nights? That's when Romano walked in with that hood on— he killed someone that night.

Romano chuckles darkly "That is not all the detail, Luca. Let me share it with you." Romano takes a step forward to keep his hands on the railing but still kept me hidden behind him. I understood what this was. This was the power play. While Luca is breaking down because of the death of his father, Romano is putting pressure on it so Luca will break down completely.

"He was easy to kill, you know? Let his guard down while he was sleeping. Then I tied him, and had a little chat with him." His grip tightens on the railings "Then drowned him in my whiskey, and then I lit him on fire. He screamed covered in these beautiful flames that even I was mesmerized." Luca's hands shake. He's trembling but he keeps the gun pointed at Romano.

Romano snarls "I told you, you mess with what's mine, and I will kill you. I am the link. I am more powerful than you or your fucked up dead father. You tried attacking my girl three times but you couldn't kill her or me. Didn't finish the job because you were carefully planning out your next move." Romano takes a deep breath, "You know that Italian saying? I bet you do, your father always said to me. So let me convey his message to you. Fai la tua mossa prima che qualcun altro la faccia per te."

Then he translates "Make your move before someone else makes it for you." Then he clicks his tongue "Tsk, tsk, tsk, shame that you never really took your father's words to heart. Were you even his real son? Oh wait, you were never his blood." Romano raises his brow "He took you in and fucked up his own life. Trapped with a fucked up son like you."

"SHUT THE FUCK UP."

Romano mocks him, "Wow, the great Luca Donario, the man who never shows reactions because he likes manipulating. You're showing a bit too much today." Then I feel Romano's hand on my stomach, he kept signaling something with his hand while he kept his facade. What did he want?

He kept signaling something with his thumb, pointing at me. Then he whispers something under his breath that only I could hear "Lilly, run." I slowly take steps behind the curtains but I was too damn slow because when Romano moved out of my way, Luca isn't too slow at all. He fires a shot at me and I scream in pain, falling to the floor. Holding my arm. Bleeding terribly. The pain was unbearable.

Romano grabs me and pulls me behind the curtains, out of Luca's view and he's panicking when he sees my arm bleeding. The bullet wasn't in me but it grazed me badly and burned my skin a little. Romano takes off his suit jacket and presses it to my arm while I heave. Carter's hands are shaking and I hold his cheek "I'm fine, Carter. I am fine." Something fogs his eyes and he leans into my hand with a shocked look, reminiscing something bad. Something about the past. I gulp and rest my head back on the wall, trying to catch my breath and hold in my tears. It hurt so bad.

Then I'm losing it. I'm losing my sanity and I'm losing myself to the pain.

Everything goes blank instantly.

♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡

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Love, Hope
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