How Lilies turn Black Chapter 51 - The Blood Bath (8)

Instead of conveying his thoughts with words, he silently walked to the grave and knelt.  

 

To do what he should have done before things turned out this way—now, belatedly, in front of his father.  

 

Soon after, Theodoro took out a gun and a knife, laying them neatly before the tombstone.  

 

As a passing breeze wrapped around his lonely figure, he muttered in a voice barely audible.  

 

“I’m doing too late what I should have done while you were still alive, Father.”  

 

How could he hide the bitter smile?  

 

Theodoro slowly raised the knife and pierced his own lip. A round drop of blood formed on his skin and fell with a soft plop beneath his bowed head.  

 

Gazing at the blood spreading over the green grass, he began reciting the declaration—a baptism and initiation into the mafia.  

 

Had Vittorio been there, he would have recited it first, and Theodoro would have repeated after him.  

 

But the father who was to bestow the baptism was no longer here.  

 

Only Theodoro’s solitary monologue had to continue, bleak and unaccompanied.  

 

“I, Theodoro Benedetti… from this day forth…”  

 

Slowly, ever so slowly, the lonely declaration scattered into the wind.  

 

At some point, his voice abruptly cut off.  

 

Theodoro clenched his teeth, unable to continue. Instead of tears, bright red blood streamed down, dripping from his chin, betraying the turmoil in his heart.  

 

“Theodoro.”  

 

Luciano approached and gripped his shoulder tightly. 

 

‘Enough now. You can stop.’

  

But Theodoro still couldn’t bring himself to rise for a long time.  

 

Staring at the father he had tried so hard to protect yet helplessly lost once more… he repeated the vow, over and over—that he would not lose the organization his father had left behind.  

 

When Theodoro finally wiped his mouth with his sleeve and stood up, he faced Luciano like a man finally ready to accept his fate.  

 

One final ritual of the initiation remained.

 

Theodoro had recited the initiation oath before the late Don, and now he stood before the man who would become the new boss, bowing his head slowly.  

 

“Don Benedetti.”  

 

That day marked the beginning of the second war—one that would leave two brothers alone in the world, bringing a storm of bloodshed to Demercy.  

 

“…Theodoro, my only brother.”  

 

Luciano pulled his brother, who had willingly vowed to dedicate the rest of his life to the family, by the nape of his neck.  

 

Pressing their foreheads together, he spoke each word deliberately, as if chewing them before spitting them out.  

 

“We… will become the Benedetti that no one can touch.”  

 

“…”  

 

“The strongest, most unbreakable Benedetti.”  

 

The heat of his burning ambition brushed against Theodoro’s ear, and in the face of his new fate, Theodoro slowly closed and opened his eyes before answering.  

 

“Everything… will be as Don Benedetti desires.”  

 

Luciano’s lips curved into a bewitching arc.  

 

“…I leave it to you.”  

 

Then, with a dry kiss left on Theodoro’s bloodstained left cheek, he stepped away.  

 

And so, Theodoro… received the kiss from the new boss, Luciano Benedetti, completing what would be the first and last mafia initiation of his life.  

 

It was June 18th—the day he became both a member of the Benedetti family and its underboss.  

 

💫

 

The story had ended, but the silence lingered.

 

Liliana couldn’t bring herself to speak easily. She didn’t even know what to say.  

 

Then, Theodoro broke the quiet once more as he opened his mouth.  

 

“To be honest, I’m just sitting here meaninglessly now. The revenge ended years ago, and all that’s left is the tedious repetition of maintaining what we’ve built.”  

 

“…”  

 

“But I can’t leave, either. If I let go of even this… I won’t have a reason to open my eyes under that terrible sun that rises every day.”  

 

“…”  

 

“So, the Benedetti family will remain my eternal burden. A duty I’ll carry for the rest of my life—until the moment I close my eyes for good.”  

 

His voice was calm, but it carried a deep bitterness. And in his eyes, as always, lay the vast and desolate ruins of a wasteland.

 

Now, Liliana thought she understood why he looked at the world that way.  

 

He couldn’t have been like that from the start. In some distant past she never knew, his eyes must have shimmered with a lively glow.  

 

But after years of wear and tear, the beauty they once held slowly faded, the light dimmed…  

 

Until the world reflected in his eyes became as monotonous as the color of his irises—nothing but dull shades of gray.  

 

‘Now that I think about it, I think I understand why he always seemed so exhausted…’

  

Trapped, with no way out, clinging to the skeletal remains of an old goal, just surviving day by day.  

 

How much of a curse must each blessed day have felt like to him?  

 

Ah, this is why she shouldn’t have listened to his story. 

 

A villain should have stayed just that—a villain. She shouldn’t have been given even the slightest reason to understand him.  

 

Liliana gritted her lower teeth, forcing strength into her eyes. She recalled the immense misfortune of her past life—something she could never forget.  

 

‘No matter what you say… nothing changes.’

  

The fact that he put a bullet in her head wouldn’t change. The image of Wayne returning in pieces would remain vivid in her mind forever.  

 

Yes, nothing changes.  

 

Liliana’s gaze settled coldly. His reasons were his, and hers were hers.  

 

Useless sympathy like this was nothing but a pointless distraction—something that wouldn’t help her do what needed to be done.  

 

‘You telling me all this… means you’re willing to trust me now, doesn’t it?’

  

This was what she had wanted. Theodoro would come to deeply regret this moment in the distant future, but she—she would be deeply grateful for it.  

 

Liliana met his eyes squarely and parted her lips.  

 

“What… do you want from me?”  

 

She wanted to hear it directly from him.  

 

After all this time pushing her away, blocking her out—what did he want so badly that he was now laying everything bare before her?  

 

Even if she already had an inkling of the answer, she wanted to hear it in the clearest words possible.

 

 And without hesitation, Theodoro fixed his gaze on Lilia and conveyed his decision, already firmly made by the time he brought up the subject.  

 

“Help me, Liliana Moretti.”  

 

“…How?”  

 

Her voice carried a thick tension as it left her lips.  

 

“Help me keep this organization standing—moderate till the end. Help me lift the crumbling Benedetti Family back up.”  

 

Finally, she was hearing the words she had longed for. So this was how she would become Theodoro’s person.  

 

Her heart began to beat in an erratic, unnatural rhythm.  

 

Just a few days ago, she had lost all faith in everything she had done.  

 

But now she knew. Even the things she had agonized over—whether they were truly the right path—had been, in their own way, the best and only choices.  

 

“What… exactly must I do from now on?”  

 

The man who had once warned her to do nothing now answered without resistance.  

 

“From what you’ve heard, you already know—my brother, afraid of ending up like our father, still insists on keeping only blood relatives close. Not all of them are even trustworthy… and it’s not like he truly cares for them anyway.”  

 

‘He doesn’t truly care for them either…’

  

The thought flashed through her mind that he wasn’t wrong.  

 

‘Right, of course. Given how much he doubted and guarded against Theodoro in my past life… He was never the type to have deep trust or affection, even for his own brother.’

 

For Luciano, preserving the Don’s glorious title must have been the only urgent, vital thing.  

 

There was no way he clung to his blood relatives out of love.  

 

‘They were nothing more—and nothing less—than tools to prevent betrayal.’

  

Perhaps Luciano was even colder and more ruthless than Theodoro, a man driven solely by ambition.  

 

“Either way, because of my brother’s stubbornness, we’ve fallen too far behind. I’ve known it for a long time… but I never dared to act. I didn’t want to sever ties with the only family I have left.”  

 

“So… you’ve decided to part ways with Luciano now?”  

 

At her question, Theodoro let out a short, scoffing laugh.  

 

“Hardly. Everything I do from now on, I still consider to be for his sake.”  

 

“…”  

 

This time, it was Lilia who wanted to laugh at the absurdity, but she silently listened as he continued.  

 

“If my brother can’t move forward, then I’ll move for him. I can’t just watch us keep falling behind. Even if my actions anger him now, he’ll understand in time. That I never meant to ruin this place.”  

 

Lilia lowered her head and secretly allowed a cold smile to form.  

 

‘As foolish as the older brother is, so is the younger.’

  

How pitiful—and how delightful—that this wretched man couldn’t see what was coming, that he was pulling me in.