- 10 minutes ago
The Red Lily I Chose to Forget
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🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00I paid a fortune to wipe my memory clean.
00:03I forgot the fiancé who forged me from a street kid into a blade.
00:06I forgot the girl I once saved off a trafficking line, who then stole everything I had.
00:11I only remembered life before 18.
00:14Rainy nights, the orphanage, the bitter taste of cheap coffee, and one old poetry book, swollen from water.
00:22Three years later, I ran a used bookshop in Palermo.
00:25That dusk, the shop was empty.
00:27The bell over the door suddenly rang.
00:30Three men in black suits stepped out of the shadows.
00:33The lead one peeled off his leather gloves.
00:36His voice was low.
00:37Nightshade, why did you never answer the Don's recall?
00:41I stopped sliding a book back onto the shelf.
00:45Sorry, you have the wrong person.
00:49He took a step closer.
00:53Luca Moretti drowned the whole commission in blood for you.
00:58And you don't even give one explanation.
01:02The shop went so quiet I could hear a motorbike pass the corner.
01:06I looked at him.
01:07My chest ached for no reason.
01:09I had a memory override once.
01:11I kept my voice polite.
01:14Who is this Luca Moretti you're talking about?
01:16All three men froze at once.
01:20I followed their eyes to the other side of the street.
01:23A man stood in the dusk, black coat, tall, lean.
01:30I didn't know him, but he looked at me like I had once killed him with my own hands.
01:37Later I learned his name was Luca Moretti.
01:42He was once my fiancé.
01:45He was also the man who drove me onto that operating table.
01:49It all began at dawn, on the day of our wedding.
01:52That night the terrace of Villa Moretti was still lit.
01:55White roses filled the small chapel.
01:58Everyone was waiting for me to become Mrs. Moretti.
02:00But I couldn't find Luca.
02:02I went around the long hall and pushed open the terrace door.
02:06And I saw him holding Mia Bellini in his arms.
02:09She rose on her toes and kissed his lips.
02:12I didn't cry.
02:14I didn't scream.
02:15I was Nightshade, Red Lily's sharpest cleaner.
02:20Before my emotions broke, my body moved first.
02:24I struck for Luca's throat.
02:25My fingertips stopped on his artery.
02:28Mia screamed and threw herself at me.
02:32The next second, she shoved me into the pool.
02:36My head hit the wall.
02:38Cold water flooded my mouth.
02:40I opened my eyes underwater and almost laughed.
02:43Five years ago, I pulled Mia off a trafficking line.
02:46She was 15 then, thin as a sheet of paper.
02:49I taught her to read codes.
02:51I taught her to clean ledgers.
02:53She would make hot soup for the men after a job.
02:56She would say thank you in a trembling voice.
02:59Those blood-soaked men did no time.
03:01They said Red Lily finally had a real woman in it.
03:05When they said that, I was in the corner stitching a knife wound on my arm.
03:11Back then, Luca would frown, walk over, and take the needle from me.
03:15You're always harder on yourself than on the enemy.
03:18He tied the knot.
03:20I laughed at his shaking hands.
03:22Clumsy for a man who could strip a gun in three seconds.
03:26I believed that line.
03:28For ten years, we dodged hunters in the jungle.
03:33We emptied our magazines back-to-back in warehouses.
03:37We dragged each other out of blood at the docks.
03:40The first time I took the fall for him, I was locked for three days in the black site.
03:44He knelt outside the cell, eyes red enough to kill everyone.
03:47He said that for the rest of his life, he would never betray me.
03:50But a vow doesn't break in a single moment.
03:53It rots slowly from the first time someone starts playing favorites.
03:57I woke in the medical wing.
03:59I thought he would at least ask if it hurt.
04:02But when he spoke, his voice held only a tired warning.
04:06Mia was just scared.
04:08Don't use your night sheep methods on her.
04:12I looked at the old scar below his collarbone.
04:15Ten years ago, that bullet should have gone through my heart.
04:19You're afraid I'll deal with her in private?
04:24Red Lily forbids infighting.
04:26The wedding moves to next week.
04:28This ends here.
04:30The encrypt device by the bed bugged.
04:32Mia's name flashed on the screen.
04:34Luca glanced at it once.
04:35His brow tightened.
04:37She's having a panic attack. I'll go check on her.
04:39Luca.
04:40He stopped at the door.
04:42I asked him calmly.
04:44If it were her in the water tonight, would you also tell me it ends here?
04:47He didn't turn around.
04:49You're stronger than her.
04:51Don't waste my time on this.
04:53The door closed softly, but it was a nail pinning ten years of love to the bedside.
04:58My private terminal lit up with a black market ad.
05:03Phynex Protocol.
05:05Rebuild your identity.
05:07Seal your trauma.
05:09I stared at that line for a long time.
05:11A tainted blade can be reforged.
05:13But a tainted love is not worth polishing.
05:17I booked my first neural overwrite.
05:19After the first overrode, my mind felt rinsed in ice water.
05:23Many memories remained, but they were locked behind an invisible door.
05:26I knew I had been hurt, but I couldn't grasp the shape of the pain.
05:30The doctor told me that once the final overhaul was done,
05:32I would lose every emotional tie to red lily that had formed after I came of age.
05:38I signed the consent form.
05:41What if I regret it?
05:43The doctor didn't look up.
05:45Once you enter the final opera round, the regret gets overwrought too.
05:50I smiled.
05:53Good.
05:55When I got back to the safe house, a celebration was underway.
06:00Mia sat in the center, holding a diamond-set tactical watch.
06:04Lana Creechie saw me and rushed over.
06:06Nightshade, Mia gave us key intel on the Balkan contract.
06:11The Don praised her himself.
06:13She pushed the gift box into my hands.
06:15You brought her into the family.
06:16It's only right that you give it to her.
06:17I walked to Mia and held out the box.
06:20She reached for it.
06:21The instant our fingers touched, the box dropped.
06:24The sapphire face shattered, like a crushed eye.
06:27Mia's tears fell at once.
06:29Valentina, I know you hate me, but this is from everyone.
06:34Someone whispered.
06:35She went too far.
06:37A maid woman, fighting a young girl over a man.
06:40Luca rose from the fireplace.
06:42He came over.
06:43Picked up the broken watch.
06:45And pressed it back into my palm.
06:50Apologize.
06:51I looked at him.
06:53You saw me drop it?
06:55I saw her cry.
06:56That line cut deeper than any blade.
06:58I set the broken watch on the table.
07:02Then keep watching her cry.
07:04Mia's sobbing paused.
07:06Then she lunged and wrapped herself around my legs.
07:08Sister, don't send me away.
07:10Those men out there will eat me alive.
07:12Her nails dug deep into my ankle.
07:14I stepped back on instinct.
07:16My knee gave a slight push.
07:17But Mia screamed and fell, her left hand bending at an unnatural angle.
07:21Luca shoved me aside and scooped her up.
07:23I hit the corner of the table.
07:26A dull pain spread through my side.
07:28You have disappointed me.
07:29I braced myself against the table and didn't look at anyone.
07:33Luca.
07:34I apply to leave Red Lylee.
07:36The whole safe house went silent.
07:40Luca sneered.
07:41How many days do you think you'd survive outside the family?
07:48That's my business.
07:50You're just jealous.
07:51Cool off for a few days.
07:52The wedding goes on.
07:54That night, I went to Don Salvatore's study.
07:57The old man sat in shadow.
07:59A cigar between his fingers.
08:00Your contract debt was cleared long ago.
08:03He pushed an encrypted key to the edge of the desk.
08:06This is enough to start over anywhere.
08:08But those who leave Omara have no family behind them.
08:11I took the key.
08:12There was never anyone behind me to begin with.
08:14He looked at me for a long while.
08:16Are you certain you want to give up the night sheep seat?
08:18I looked down at my hands.
08:19These hands had cleared 27 targets for Red Lylee.
08:22They had taken three fatal hits meant for Luca.
08:24They had carried Mia out of a shipping container.
08:26But now, they only felt dirty.
08:29I'm not giving up a seat.
08:30I pushed the resignation ship onto the desk.
08:33I'm giving up on them.
08:35On the way back to the safe house, Luca called.
08:38I answered by accident.
08:39Your folding blade is with me.
08:40It was the knife we had taken from a target's vault after our first job together.
08:44Luca had carved LM and VR into the handle.
08:46He said if he ever betrayed me, I could use it to stab through his heart.
08:50I went quiet for a moment.
08:53No need to send it.
08:54Nightshade.
08:55We made it through 10 years.
08:57Why blow up over a small thing with Mia?
08:59A small thing.
09:00I repeated those three words.
09:01The last bit of warmth in my body drained away.
09:04Late that night, Luca came anyway.
09:06He set the knife on my nightstand, like he was handing me a step towards peace.
09:11When I woke at dawn, I read the carving on the handle.
09:14LM and MB.
09:17That was not my knife.
09:19I opened the hidden drawer.
09:21My blade still lay there.
09:23Untouched.
09:24So even our token of life and death, he had copied a second one for Mia.
09:28I felt no anger.
09:30I just revoked the safe house permit sheets.
09:32I took one bag and moved into a cash-only motel downtown.
09:36The noise of ordinary people came through the thin walls.
09:39For the first time, a stranger's world felt safer than home.
09:43However, the next morn, Luca issued an urgent order requiring me to go to the medical wing.
09:49The moment I stepped into the hall, Luca burst out of a side door.
09:53He slammed me hard against the metal wall.
09:55His forearm pressed into my throat.
09:57What did you do to Mia last night?
10:00I was at the motel last night.
10:02Who else but you could have bypassed every camera, gotten into her room, and cut her alarm line?
10:08Lana and a few maid men stood behind him.
10:10No one moved.
10:11In the warn, Mia hugged her knees in the corner of the bed.
10:15As soon as she saw me, she let out a tearing scream.
10:19Don't let her near me!
10:21She said she'd send me back to those men!
10:23Luca let go of me.
10:25His voice went cold.
10:26Mia was diagnosed with severe PTSD.
10:28The doctor says her finger tendons are damaged.
10:30She'll never hold a gun steady again.
10:32So you'll face a disciplined hearing.
10:34I looked past his shoulder.
10:36Through the gap in the door, Mia was peeping me.
10:39Her face was wet with tears, but her eyes were utterly fearless.
10:43That was the look of a hunter who had just confirmed the trap had worked.
10:47I suddenly walked into the ward and stood in front of Mia.
10:51Was that person last night really me?
10:54Mia's pupils shrunk.
10:55The next second, she grabbed the metal cup from the bedside table and threw it at me.
10:59The rim grazed my brow.
11:00Blood slid down the corner of my eye.
11:02She shrunk behind Luca, crying so hard she could barely breathe.
11:05Don't touch me, sister.
11:06I'll give Luca back to you.
11:08Just let me go.
11:09Lana spoke first.
11:10Night show.
11:11Enough.
11:12She's terrified, and you're still pushing her?
11:15I wiped the blood from my eye.
11:17Lana, the year you tripped the alarm, I dragged you out of a pile of corpses.
11:21You owe me a life, and now you're spending it testifying for her?
11:25She looked away.
11:26One thing has nothing to do with another.
11:28I finally laughed out loud.
11:30Wonderful.
11:31It seems what Red Lavely taught you best was ingratitude.
11:35I looked at Luca.
11:36You want to judge me?
11:38I'm protecting the rules of the family.
11:40No, Luca.
11:42I wiped the blood from my lip.
11:44My voice was very soft.
11:47You're protecting her.
11:50Hours later, I woke in the Blacksite interrogation room.
11:55Restraints held my wrists and ankles.
11:57A thin sensor was taped beside my temple.
12:01Luca stood at the door, like a judge with no feeling.
12:05Valentina Rinaldi, who are charged with private violence against a family member, in breach of Omagia.
12:12Where's the evidence?
12:13Mia's testimony.
12:15The medical records, the camera blind spot.
12:18Snap your skill.
12:19I laughed.
12:21So skill can be evidence now?
12:23Luca's fingers paused on the discipline order.
12:26For one instant, I thought he would look at me.
12:29But he didn't.
12:30The pen came down.
12:31The signature was sharp.
12:34Begin.
12:34Two masked figures stepped closer.
12:37One drove a probe into the back of my neck.
12:40The torture leaned close to my ear and smiled.
12:42Don't worry.
12:43Someone gave special orders.
12:45There will be no scar on you.
12:47The moment the device started, pain exploded from my spine into my brain, as if someone
12:51were threading a red hot wire through every nerve I had.
12:55I bit through my lip.
12:56Blood filled my mouth.
12:57But I made no sound.
12:59Faint footsteps came from outside the wall.
13:01I knew Luca hadn't gone far.
13:03I also knew he would not come back.
13:06I don't know how long it lasted.
13:08The restraints loosened.
13:09I slid off the chair, not even feeling my nails tear and break.
13:13The next day, the door opened.
13:15Luca stood in the backlight, exhaustion in his eyes, and a late, tangled something.
13:21So many eyes were watching last night.
13:23I had to give everyone an answer.
13:25I braced on the wall, stood, and walked around him.
13:31Done giving answers?
13:33Mia's cry came from the end of the hall.
13:35Luca, I'm so scared.
13:37His hand stopped in midair, then withdrew.
13:40Go back to your room.
13:41Don't cause more trouble.
13:43I watched him run towards that voice.
13:46My terminal buzzed.
13:48The final transfer had cleared.
13:50I flagged down a taxi and gave the address of Phoenix Clinic.
13:54The doctor attached the sensors to me and confirmed the final procedure.
13:57After the overroute, you'll forget Red Lily, forget Nightshake, and forget Luca Moretti.
14:04Will the body memory go too?
14:06No.
14:08So I might still flinch from gunfire.
14:11And I might still grip a knife that isn't there in my sleep.
14:15The doctor glanced at me.
14:17Yes.
14:18But you won't know why.
14:19That's enough.
14:20I nodded.
14:21He handed me one last document.
14:23That was a refusal of restoration clause.
14:26Once signed, no one could wake my memory in the name of lover, family, or guardian.
14:32I signed it fast.
14:33As the pen came down, the back of my hand still trembled from the nerve pain after to the torture.
14:38The doctor asked if I wanted to leave a message.
14:41I thought for a long time, then recorded these words.
14:44If Luca Moretti finds this place, please don't let him see me.
14:49I don't hate him.
14:51Hate still means remembering him.
14:53But I don't want to remember anymore.
14:55I closed my eyes.
14:59Begin.
15:01My consciousness was pulled away, piece by piece.
15:05Gunshots.
15:06Vows.
15:07The jungle.
15:08The carving on the knife.
15:09Luca's back once shielding me, all curling and blacking like old photographs.
15:14The last thing burned away was the part of me that loved him.
15:17Before the deep sleep took me, I had already arranged my own death.
15:21I bought an unidentified female body.
15:23A death certificate scorched by fire.
15:25A clean route to Sicily.
15:27I made every clue point to the eastern border.
15:30While the real me would be loaded onto a freighter bound for Polesmo.
15:33After the final overrode.
15:35When the doctor counted to three, I said one last line to Nightshale.
15:38In my heart.
15:39You did well.
15:40You can die now.
15:42After I disappeared, Luca had really come looking for me.
15:45It was the third day after my overhoad.
15:47He went to the safe house.
15:49First, he wanted to swap back the knife with the wrong name and to end the Cold War with
15:52a new ring.
15:53But the fingerprint scanner flashed red.
15:56It let out a harsh rejection tone.
15:58He tried again.
15:59Still red.
16:00The permission had been permanently revoked.
16:02He called in the family's cleanup staff.
16:05The man pulled up the back ward and his face dartened.
16:09Boss, her file status is permanent separation.
16:13Signed off by the Don himself three days ago.
16:16Luca stared at that line and didn't move for a long time.
16:19Where did she go?
16:20There's no destination in the system.
16:23What did she take?
16:25One bag.
16:26One encrypted fund.
16:28The man paused.
16:30And all her operation records.
16:32She wiped them clean herself.
16:35Luca rushed into my room.
16:37The closet, empty.
16:39The drawers, empty.
16:41Even the pen I used was gone.
16:42Only the knife he'd sent lay on the nightstand.
16:45LM and MB.
16:46He finally read the names on the handle.
16:48In that moment, he felt uneasy for the first time.
16:50But he still didn't think of the worst.
16:52He thought I was only hiding for a few days.
16:54He thought I would come back on my own like every other fight before.
16:57But he didn't know I had deleted the option of coming back.
17:00With my own hands.
17:01Mia moved into Luca's room soon after.
17:03Because she said she had nightmares living alone.
17:07She said she only felt safe close to him.
17:10She made soup.
17:11Changed bandages.
17:13Stayed up until dawn when he drank.
17:15She would press a wet cloth to his forehead.
17:17Over and over.
17:18When he ran a fever.
17:19She would show every passing maid man a smile.
17:22Restrained and brave.
17:23Hence, a new saying spread through the family.
17:26They said Mia was a good girl.
17:27They said Nightshade was too cruel.
17:30Unworthy of the boss's tenderness.
17:31Only one person never echoed any of it.
17:34That was Luca.
17:36He didn't turn the page just because he married Mia.
17:38The way everyone assumed.
17:39He started drinking.
17:41Villa Morelli's liquor cabinet emptied by half in a week.
17:45The living room reeked of whiskey and tobacco all year round.
17:48He took every cleanup contract no one else dared touch.
17:51Like he was sending himself into the muzzle on purpose.
17:53On the Balkan job, he cleared an entire warehouse alone.
17:57He came back with two new bullet holes in his left shoulder.
17:59He didn't even wipe the blood before taking the next job.
18:03It was on the docks of Chicago Southside.
18:06It was meant to be the simplest recycling job.
18:08But he blanked out right before pulling the trigger.
18:11The dying target lashed back and a blade sank into his stomach.
18:15Blood ran down his black suit.
18:17But he felt nothing and pushed the man's head under the river.
18:20Back on shore, he leaned on the railer and laughed.
18:24There was no life in that laugh.
18:26That was the first time Red Lily pulled Luca off the active roster.
18:31Don Salvatore ordered him to rest, with no end date.
18:35He sat in the empty room, polishing the real knife, carved with LM and VR, once and again.
18:42The blade shone bright enough to reflect his sunken eyes.
18:46He didn't know I had seen the copy before I left.
18:48He didn't know the knife was never what cut me.
18:51It was that he assumed I would always stand in place, waiting for him.
18:57When he was drunk to the point of losing his mind, he repeated only one name.
19:01Valentina, come back.
19:04Valentina, I was wrong.
19:06But in the empty room, no one answered him.
19:09Mia couldn't wait to sit still.
19:11She had waited three months, but Luca never touched her once.
19:17She finally understood.
19:18As long as I was alive, Luca would never be hers.
19:23So she spread word.
19:25That someone had seen Nightshope's body at the eastern border.
19:29Three days later, a wallet, warped by fire, was delivered to Villa Moretti.
19:34Inside were my old cards, and a photo burnt to half.
19:38That was a clue I had left on purpose.
19:41I needed everyone to believe Nightshope had died in the east.
19:45But I never expected Mia to be the first to use the false death news.
19:49When Luca got the wallet, he looked like a man with his bones pulled out.
19:53He shut himself in his room for a full week.
19:56No food.
19:57No drink.
19:59He saw no one.
20:00The aide stood outside for seven days.
20:04Hearing only glass shatter now and then, Mia decided the time had come.
20:10That deep night, she carried in a bowl of hangover soup.
20:14In it was enough drug to black out a grown man for an entire night.
20:17Luca, have a little.
20:19It'll help.
20:19He lifted the bowl to his lips.
20:21He leaned on the headboard, eyes hollow, without even the strength to push it away.
20:26He drank it down, from her hand, with no defense.
20:30The drug rose fast.
20:32His mind blurred, bit by bit.
20:35The last thing he saw was Mia's face, leaning close, and the flash of triumph in her eyes.
20:41The next dawn, Luca woke to a splitting headache.
20:45Mia lay beside him, wrapped in the blanket, one shoulder bare, the sheets a mess.
20:49She had silenced the terminal on the table, but the screen still blicked a red life sign alert.
20:55The aide's urgent voice came through the door.
20:57Boss, are you in there?
21:00Your life signal went dark for three hours last night.
21:03The electronic lock was opened by emergency override.
21:06A few made men burst in, then froze in place.
21:09Don Savator stood at the door, too.
21:11The old man's eyes swept the messy bed and landed on Luca's pale face.
21:15The whole room went terribly quiet.
21:18Red Lily does not interfere in private affairs.
21:21The Dodd's voice was low, but everyone bowed their heads.
21:25But you touched a woman under your protection, so you'll give her a title.
21:29Luca opened his mouth.
21:31He wanted to explain, but he remembered nothing.
21:34He knew he had been set up.
21:37But in Red Lily, the scandal itself was evidence.
21:42Omada doesn't care about truth.
21:44It cares about the family's reputation.
21:48He had no proof he'd been drugged.
21:51He couldn't even explain what had happened the night before.
21:54The wedding was rushed and absurd.
21:57Villa Moretti's small chapel was dressed in new white roses, almost identical to the ones prepared for me.
22:03Luca stood before the priest in a black suit, like a man marched to the gallows.
22:07Luca Moretti, will you protect Villa Lurie until the end of your life?
22:10The priest asked.
22:12Luca looked at Mia, but his mind was full of my shadow.
22:15My back.
22:17The night I took the fall for him.
22:19The way I laughed at his shaking hands.
22:22Cold laugh I gave him when I opened my eyes underwater.
22:25His stomach turned.
22:26Under the wide skirt, Mia secretly pinched his hand.
22:29Everyone is watching.
22:31You don't want to disappoint the dawn, right?
22:33She lowered her voice.
22:34Luca closed his eyes.
22:36I do.
22:36He said those words like swallowing broken glass.
22:39After the banquet, he walked back to the new bedroom alone.
22:43Rounding the corner of the hall, he heard laughter inside.
22:46It was Mia and Lana.
22:48This time, I owe it all to you.
22:51Mia's voice was sweet to the point of clogging.
22:53If you hadn't helped me edit the cameras and shift the timeline, how would Luca never believe
22:58Valentina broke in at midnight to scare me?
23:00Lana laughed softly.
23:02Nightshade has skill, sure.
23:04But she's too proud.
23:06So she pulled me out of a pile of corpses.
23:08So what?
23:10Every time she looked at me, it was like she was pitying a trash.
23:14Mia scoffed.
23:15However good she is, she's just a dead woman now.
23:17A dead woman, her own man, sent to the operating plate.
23:20Outside the door, Luca's hand slid slowly off the wall.
23:24Fake.
23:25All of it fake.
23:26Mia's PTSD was fake.
23:28The night raid was fake.
23:29My death was fake too.
23:31But one thing was real.
23:32It was he who signed that discipline order.
23:34It was he who had pushed me, step by step, into the Phoenix Protocol.
23:38In that moment, Luca finally understood he hadn't lost a fiancé who threw a tantrum.
23:43He had killed, with his own hands, the only person in this world who ever truly loved him.
23:48Luca pushed the door open.
23:49The laughter in the room cut off at once.
23:51Mia's face turned white in an instant.
23:53The jewelry box in Lana's hands hit the floor with a clack.
23:56Gems scattered everywhere.
23:57Luca walked towards Mia, step by step.
24:00His pace was slow, but each step landed like it was crushing the heartbeats of two women.
24:05Say it again.
24:06Mia backed away.
24:07Her lower back hit the vanity.
24:10Luca, you misheard.
24:12We were just talking about the wedding.
24:13He gripped her throat and pinned her to the wall.
24:18The PTSD was fake.
24:21Mia's toes nearly left the floor.
24:23She clawed at his wrist, her voice breaking.
24:26It's just because I loved you too much.
24:27I've loved you since I was 15.
24:29Why does Valentin get everything and I get nothing?
24:32Valentina's death news.
24:34You did that too?
24:35Do you?
24:37She's done with you!
24:39Mia burst into tears.
24:41I'm the one who stayed.
24:43I'm the one who changes your bandages every day.
24:47I'm the one who's really good to you.
24:50Luca's hand tightened further.
24:52And the cameras?
24:53He turned to look at Lana, cowering in the corner.
24:55Lana's knees gave out.
24:57She dropped straight to the floor.
24:58I edited them, but I only helped Mia once.
25:02Luca, I really didn't mean to get her killed.
25:04I thought she'd only be locked up for a few days.
25:06Luca let go of Mia.
25:08She collapsed on the ground, coughing hard.
25:10He wiped his hand with a handkerchief, like he'd touched something filthy.
25:14Then he threw the handkerchief onto Mia's face.
25:16He keyed his terminal.
25:17His voice held no rise or fall.
25:19Discipline crew, come to the bedroom.
25:21Hearing those words, Mia crawled to him like she'd gone mad.
25:24She wrapped around Luca's leg.
25:25Kill me if you want.
25:26Just don't cut me out of your life.
25:28For the three years I stayed with you, I'm begging you.
25:31Luca looked down at her, only cold disgust in his eyes.
25:33Killing you would be too easy.
25:35Several men in black arrived quickly.
25:37They hauled Mia up and dragged her toward the door.
25:39Mia went from begging to cursing.
25:41Her voice was as sharp as a knife scraping glass.
25:44Luca Moretti, you'll regret this.
25:45Valentina is never coming back.
25:47She's dead.
25:48You send her to die with your own hands.
25:50You'll never see her again in this life.
25:52Luca stood in place.
25:54He didn't turn around.
25:57He gave the aide his orders.
25:59Mia Bellini framed a maid family member.
26:02Faked a death.
26:03Broke Omarda.
26:04Take her to the Palerno Blacksite Cisball.
26:06For how long?
26:08Luca's voice held no warmth.
26:10Until she forgets she ever saw the light.
26:12The Palerno Blacksite Censor.
26:14That was Red Lily's oldest place of punishment.
26:17An underground water vault left from the family's smuggling years.
26:20The stone walls wept year round.
26:22A chain nailed into the wall on one end and locked to the prisoner's neck on the other.
26:27There was no light.
26:28No day or night.
26:30There was only the sound of water dripping into water.
26:32One drop, then another.
26:33The first night Mia was taken down, her crying carried through the vents for a long time.
26:38She screamed Luca's name over and over and cursed me over and over.
26:42The aide asked if they should gag her.
26:45No need.
26:47Luca stood beside the well, watching the cold lamp reflected on the water.
26:53Let her hear how ugly she sounds.
26:56He turned to leave.
26:57Halfway out, he stopped.
26:59He pulled a brand new wedding ring from his pocket.
27:02The one he'd been forced to slide onto Mia's finger.
27:05He casually tossed it into the black water below.
27:09The ring sank.
27:10Without even an echo.
27:12That girl who had once played so pitifully.
27:14That girl who used one bowl of soup, one act, one fake death to ruin ten years of my life.
27:20Was finally locked in a lightless citizen.
27:22They say three months later, when the guards brought food, she no longer screamed Luca's name.
27:29She just hugged her knees and laughed at the water stains on the wall over and over.
27:37But none of this had anything to do with me anymore.
27:41I didn't even know such a girl had ever existed.
27:44Lana was taken to the commission hearing.
27:46To light of her own crime, she handed over all the evidence.
27:49The camera edit logs, the ledger for the faked body, Mia's dark web orders for the drugs.
27:54Item by item, it all matched.
27:56Luca took the evidence to Don Salvatore.
27:59For the first time, he knelt in that study.
28:01His back bent like it had been broken.
28:03Tell me where Valentia went.
28:05The old Don looked down at him.
28:07She took what she was owed before she left.
28:09As for where she went, I have no right to ask.
28:11No.
28:12Luca raised his head, eyes red.
28:14I'm begging you, tell me.
28:15The old Don was silent for a long time.
28:17He slowly ground out his cigar in the tray.
28:20I only know one thing.
28:21What she begged for was not to escape red lily.
28:24What she begged for was to forget you.
28:26That line cut deeper than any bullet.
28:28Luca knelt there, unable to say another word.
28:30From that day on, Luca was a blade with no sheath.
28:33He began the reckoning.
28:34Everyone who had ever mocked me.
28:35Everyone who handed Mia a knife who spoke ill of me.
28:37One by one, they were dragged to the commission.
28:39Were sent to the most dangerous border front.
28:41None came back.
28:43The ones who jeered for me to apologize were stripped of every contract cut.
28:47Lana Ricci was stripped of her made woman status and sent to a border counting house.
28:51Never to set foot in Villa Moretti again.
28:54The torturer who used the neural device on me in that room was dragged into the very same metal chair
28:58by Luca.
29:03Luca strapped him with the same restraints.
29:09They said when that man came out, he couldn't speak one full sentence.
29:13Someone advised Luca to stop.
29:16The whole family had been purged into fear.
29:20But he only said one word.
29:24What she went through, every one of them should feel once.
29:28In the end, his reckoning even traced the black market clinic's transfer records.
29:32But the trail ended at an anonymous lock he could never open.
29:36He sat in the study for an entire night.
29:39The next day, he ordered every mirror in the family removed.
29:42The 80s didn't understand.
29:43Only he knew he couldn't stand the face in the glass.
29:46It was the face of a man who sent the one he loved into hell with his own hands.
29:50But late punishment meant nothing.
29:52He washed all of red lily in blood.
29:53He killed everyone who ever wronged me.
29:55But he still could not find the me he lost with his own hand.
29:58A blood deed can be collected one by one.
30:01But the person you lost, not one can be traded back.
30:06And I, at that time, was in Palermo at dawn.
30:10Watering a pot of red spider lissies.
30:14Knowing nothing of all this.
30:16And feeling nothing of it either.
30:20Three years later.
30:22My life in Palermo was quiet, like an old book.
30:26My name now was Valentina Bellani.
30:29Every morning at seven, the smell of bread from the bakery downstairs reached my room before my alarm.
30:38I would brew a weak cup of coffee and sit by the window, writing the day's stock list.
30:46Then I would go downstairs and open the old wooden door of the shop and carry the pot of red
30:53spider lilies out into the sun.
30:57On quiet afternoons, I would recommend poetry to whoever wandered in.
31:02In the evening, Marco would come on his electric scooter to pick me up.
31:07He would take me to the little restaurant on the corner.
31:10I lived on the second floor of the shop.
31:13The room was small, but from the window, I could see a sliver of the sea.
31:18No encrypted channels.
31:20No mission countdowns.
31:22No one in my ear, ordering me to clean a target.
31:26A life this ordinary feels almost like luxury.
31:30Marco always says I'm like someone who just learned to be a person.
31:34I say that's not so bad.
31:37Being a person is better than being a blade.
31:40I don't know, I once held a gun.
31:42I don't know why my body tense a beat early at the sound of clashing metal.
31:50Once, the kitchen behind the restaurant dropped a whole stack of knives.
31:56I pulled Mari behind me, almost on instinct.
31:59Even I froze.
32:02Marco looked at me for a long time.
32:04You must have been hurt really badly, somewhere in the past.
32:08I believed him.
32:11After all, I did have one faint old scar on the back of my neck.
32:15I didn't know where it came from, but it didn't hurt.
32:19That was enough.
32:21These three years, I had run the shop well.
32:24I remembered every regular's taste.
32:27The baker downstairs saved me the first corzone out of the Ivan every day.
32:32The old woman at the corner flower stalk gave me her leftover daisies.
32:37Marco taught me to ride that old scooter.
32:40My first time out, I knocked over three trash casses.
32:44He laughed at me for a whole week.
32:48At night, I would sit by the second floor window and watch that sliver of sea.
32:52No bodies on the water.
32:54No deals.
32:55No targets to clean.
32:57Only moonlight.
32:58And the lamps of distant fishing boats.
33:01I started to believe a person really could start over.
33:04No need for a codename.
33:05No need for a gun.
33:06All you need is a creaking wooden door and a sun that rises on time every day.
33:11Until that dusk.
33:13Belondi Books had no customers.
33:16I was pushing a row of old books back onto the shelf.
33:19The bell over the door suddenly rang.
33:26Three men in black suits stepped out of the dusk.
33:29Their shoes were polished.
33:31Their eyes were cold.
33:33They carried an air that didn't belong on this quiet old street.
33:37The lead man peeled off his leather gloves.
33:42Nightshade.
33:43Why did you never answer the dawn's recall?
33:48I stopped what I was doing.
33:51I'm sorry.
33:53You have the wrong person.
33:55My name is Valentina Belendi.
33:57He took a step forward.
34:01Luca Morendi drowned the whole commission in blood for you.
34:06And you don't even give one explanation?
34:08The shop went so quiet I could hear a motorbike past the corner.
34:12I looked at him.
34:13And my chest ached.
34:15For no reason.
34:16The ache was faint.
34:18Like something deep in my body had bumped a door.
34:21Lightly.
34:21I tried to keep my voice polite.
34:24I had a memory override once.
34:26Who is this Luca Morecci you're talking about?
34:29All three men froze at once.
34:31I followed their eyes to the other side of the street.
34:33A man stood deep in the dusk.
34:35Black coat.
34:36Tall and lean.
34:38Like a shadow stepping out of an old nightmare.
34:41I didn't know him.
34:42But the way he looked at me was like I had once killed him with my own hands.
34:46The man slowly walked into the shop.
34:48The bell rang again.
34:49I looked up at him and thought he was strange.
34:51He wore an expensive coat.
34:53He looked like a man who could decide many peoples in death.
34:56Yet in front of me his face went white.
34:59You don't know me?
35:00His voice was badly horsed.
35:01He hadn't spoken days.
35:03If we knew each other before I'm thought about it.
35:05My memory stops at 18.
35:07The doctor said everything after that was cleared.
35:10Not a single thing.
35:12There was a tremble in his voice I couldn't read.
35:14You really don't remember me at all?
35:18No.
35:20I don't remember.
35:21I shook my head.
35:22I saw his hands shaking violently.
35:25And suddenly I couldn't bear it.
35:27You don't look well?
35:29Would you like to sit down for a moment?
35:31It was as if those words had struck him hard.
35:33His whole body swayed.
35:35I took a book from under the counter and handed it to him.
35:38It was an old poetry collection about making peace with the past.
35:41You carry a lot of violence with you.
35:44Maybe this book will help quiet you a little.
35:46Well, he took the book.
35:48His fingertips trembled so much he could barely hold it.
35:52The next second, a tear fell onto the cover of the book.
35:55I froze.
35:57I froze.
35:58I didn't know why this stranger was crying.
36:00And I never knew that long, long ago I had seen him take a bullet.
36:04Seen him kill.
36:05Seen him grin in a pool of blood.
36:08But I'd never once seen him cry like this.
36:10The bell over the door rang a third time.
36:13Marco pushed the door open.
36:14He carried our packed dinner in his hand.
36:16Val, the restaurant said the seafood soup was almost sold out.
36:18But I got the last two servings.
36:20I smiled at once.
36:21That smile had grown on my face over these three years.
36:24Light.
36:24Unburdened.
36:25Then let's close early.
36:26I turned to the crying man and apologized softly.
36:29Sir, we're closing now.
36:31He stood by the door, watching me turn off the lights, watching me lock the door, watching
36:37me naturally climb onto the back of Marco's scooter.
36:42My arms wrapped around another man's waist.
36:45Before Marco started the scooter, he looked back and asked me,
36:49Who was that man?
36:52I looked back for a glance.
36:55Under the street lamp, the man in black stood very straight.
36:59Yet it looked like the whole night had bent his back.
37:02I don't know.
37:04Probably someone who got the wrong person.
37:06The scooter rolled through the narrow old street.
37:08I couldn't help but look back one last time.
37:12The man was still standing there, holding the book I had given him.
37:16The rain hadn't fallen yet, but his shoulders looked already soaked through.
37:20My chest felt tight for a moment.
37:23The feeling was unfamiliar.
37:25Like a door deep inside me had been blown open a crack, then quickly shut again.
37:31I lowered my head and pressed my chest.
37:34Are you feeling unwell?
37:36No.
37:37I looked up at the glowing restaurant sign ahead.
37:40That warm yellow sign was the color of my life now.
37:43It's just that some people seem to live very hard lives.
37:46Marco smiled.
37:48Then stay away from people who live hard lives.
37:51I smiled too.
37:52What I didn't know was that after that night, Luca went to the Phoenix Clinic.
37:57That black market clinic was hidden under an old pharmacy by the port.
38:02No sign at the door.
38:03Only one green lamp, about to burn out.
38:06On.
38:07Off.
38:07The doctor saw the red lily crest under at Luca's coat.
38:12His face went white at once.
38:15Mr. Moretti, the Phoenix Protocol contract is protected by anonymity.
38:20I cannot disclose client information.
38:23Luca set a gun on the table.
38:26The muzzle pointed at himself.
38:30I'm not asking where she is.
38:33The doctor's atoms-joeman moved.
38:35Then, what do you want to ask?
38:39Whether it can be restored?
38:41The doctor was silenced for a long time.
38:44Finally, he pulled up an encrypted file.
38:47Mr. Moretti, you have to understand.
38:49The final overroute is not hypnosis, nor is it ordinary trauma sealing.
38:53What she asked to delete was the entire identity chain of her adult years, the emotional chain,
38:58and every trigger for danger responses.
39:00We kept her basic language, life skills, and bodily instincts.
39:04But everything related to red lily has been severed.
39:06Luca's knuckles tightened bit by bit.
39:08I asked if it can be restored.
39:10The doctor lowered his head.
39:12In theory, those fragments could be forcibly stimulated, but she would suffer a mental breakdown.
39:17More importantly...
39:18The doctor paused.
39:19Before the procedure, she signed a refusal of restoration clause.
39:24The doctor took a recording device from the drawer and pushed it across to Luca.
39:27This is the message she left.
39:28She said if you ever came looking, I should play it for you.
39:31He pressed play.
39:32In the recording, it was my voice.
39:35At that time, I had just come off the neural torture.
39:38So weak, I could barely speak one full sentence.
39:41But the clarity in that voice was sharper than ever.
39:44If Luca Moretti finds this place, please don't let him see me.
39:49There was a long pause in the recording.
39:51I don't hate him.
39:52Hate would still mean remembering him.
39:55But I don't want to remember anymore.
39:57Another patch of static.
40:00Night's shea was red lily's blade.
40:04She loved Luca.
40:08And she was broken by Luca with his own hands.
40:15When the procedure ends, the person who survives owes him nothing.
40:20Owes the family nothing.
40:21Owes no vow, anything.
40:23Please, let her be free.
40:26The recording ended.
40:27Luca listened and said nothing for a long time.
40:30The whole clinic was quiet except for the hum of that green lamp.
40:34The doctor took out one more thing.
40:36A paper document.
40:38It was an ordinary pre-op consent form.
40:41A small patch of dark brown blood on the corner.
40:45From the day I signed it, when the back of my hand trembled from nerve pain.
40:49Below the signature, I had written one extra line.
40:51The handwriting was slightly distorted from trembling.
40:54Nightshade died in the final Oberoad.
40:56Please don't not revive her.
40:57Luca stared at that line.
40:58For a very, very long time.
41:01Long enough.
41:01That the doctor thought he would never speak again.
41:05In the end, he took from the inner pocket of his coat, the folding blade carved with LM and VR.
41:10That was the real one.
41:12Ten years ago, he had carved both their names into it himself.
41:16He said if he ever betrayed me, I could use it to stab through his heart.
41:20He set the knife down beside the consent form.
41:25Seal it into the file.
41:27The doctor froze.
41:29Mr. Moretti, this is yours.
41:31No.
41:32His voice was empty.
41:34Like it had been blown through by sea wind.
41:38It belongs to the one who's already dead.
41:41With that, he turned and left.
41:44Without looking back.
41:47That knife, which had witnessed ten years of life and death, was finally sealed, along with that form that reads,
41:55please do not revive her, into a file no one will ever open again.
42:00Back at Villa Moretti, Luca called a commission meeting.
42:04He pushed through three new rules.
42:06First, Nightshep's file is permanently sealed, status changed to deceased.
42:10Second, Belandi Books and the three streets around it, marked as a permanent Red Lion no-entry zone.
42:16Third, no member may approach Valentina Belani, not in the name of protection, pursuit, recall, or revenge.
42:23An older capo spoke up, hesitantly.
42:27Boss, she knows too much of the family's old business, after all.
42:31Even with the memory loss, she's a risk.
42:36Maybe we should cut the...
42:38Luca lifted his eyes and looked at him.
42:40That one look froze in the whole room.
42:42I am the risk.
42:43He said it, one word at a time.
42:45Whoever touches her, I will handle them personally.
42:49No one dared say another word.
42:51After the meeting, the aide handed him a black envelope.
42:55Boss, that bridal suite in Villa Morelli is still kept as it was.
43:00Inside are your old things, and nightshades.
43:04And the dried white roses prepared for the wedding.
43:07How would you like them handled?
43:11Luca didn't take the envelope.
43:13Burn them.
43:13He only said two words.
43:15The aide hesitated.
43:17All of it?
43:17All of it.
43:19That room burned the whole night through.
43:21The wedding dress I never got to wear.
43:23The velvet box that held the ring.
43:26The old photos from missions we ran together.
43:29And the knife carved with the wrong name.
43:33All of it, devoured by the fire.
43:35Into the fire, he also threw one more thing.
43:38A photo of the two of us, ten years ago.
43:42In the photo, I leaned on his shoulder.
43:45Both of us smiling softly.
43:47It was the only photo where neither of us held a gun.
43:51He watched that face get licked black by the fire.
43:55Curl turned to ash.
43:57Luca stood in the courtyard, watching the firelight re-read in the windows of Villa Moretti, bit by bit.
44:04The aide beside him wanted to say something, but in the end didn't dare.
44:09They say he didn't shed a single tear that night, because the time when he could really cry.
44:15He had already used it up in that tiny bookshop in Palermo.
44:18That night, a fine rain fell over Palermo.
44:22I was in the shop with Marco, sorting newly arrived old books.
44:28I looked up at the rain outside the window, and suddenly thought of the pot of pot of red spider
44:32lallies at the door.
44:34So I went over and carried it inside.
44:38Marco laughed at me.
44:39Val, those flowers look a little unlucky.
44:42They say they bloom on the road to the underworld.
44:45I lightly brushed the blood-red petals with my fingertip.
44:49Is that so?
44:51I think they're more like a reminder.
44:53The roads you shouldn't go back on.
44:56Don't go back.
44:57In a car at the corner of the street, someone watched me one last time through the rain.
45:02I didn't notice.
45:04And that was good.
45:05From that night on, the name Valentina Rinaldi was gone from Red Lime's Ledgers.
45:12Only a codename sealed away forever, and I never saw the man called Luca Moretti again.
45:19The days after that remained ordinary.
45:22I opened the shop every morning, carried the red spider lillians out into the sun.
45:27In the afternoon, recommended stories that quiet the heart to strangers.
45:32In the evening, locked the shop door and climbed onto Marco's scooter.
45:37Sometimes late at night, I would touch that faint old scar on the back of my neck.
45:41I still didn't know where it came from.
45:43I only knew this.
45:44Every time the bell rings, I would, on instinct, look up toward the door,
45:48and then confirm there is no darkness there, only the light of ordinary people.
45:52Later, Marco asked me why I loved the red spider lillians so much.
45:56I said I didn't know.
45:57Maybe because they bloom so quietly.
46:00They need no leaves beside them.
46:02They need no one to look back at them.
46:03When their season comes, they wake from the soil all on their own.
46:07Just like me.
46:09I don't remember night shape.
46:10I don't remember the man called Luca Moretti.
46:14I don't know that someone washed a whole city in blood for me.
46:18I don't know that someone burned all our past facing a fire.
46:22None of it has anything to do with the me of now.
46:25But I know this.
46:26The me of now opens the door at dawn, locks the shop at dusk,
46:30greets every ordinary tomorrow to the sound of a bell.
46:32This is not a new life granted to me by anyone.
46:35Nor is it redemption bought with the city's blood.
46:37This is freedom.
46:38Freedom I took from the hands of my old self.
46:41Freedom I claimed for myself.
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