Lahat ng Kabanata ng Bound by blood and lies: Kabanata 131 - Kabanata 140

Eli's povThe house was dark.I heard the explosion before I felt it.The house trembled, shaking the walls like a nightmare knocking on the door. The safe room was filled with silence, heavy, suffocating silence but I knew outside, chaos was unfolding.My heart pounded, louder than any siren, louder than any shout. I was trapped in a steel box, walls designed to keep me safe but it felt like a cage.Ricardo’s voice came through the comms, tense but firm.“We’re holding the line, Eli. Stay put. Don’t open the door for anyone. No matter what. Unless it's either Luca, Matteo or me.”I nodded, though no one could see me. My fingers traced the cold edge of the countertop, to try and ground myself to the only solid thing around me.Then came the screams.Not many just a few but close enough that my stomach turned.They’re inside.I swallowed hard, the weight of it pressing down like a physi

Eli's pov He stared at me like I was a riddle that didn’t deserve solving.Luca’s father.Don Emilio Rossi.The head iof the family. The man who disappeared from the public eye years ago, handing the reins to Luca and Matteo after a lifetime of leading with iron fists and loaded guns. I’d seen pictures. But up close… he was something else.His face was ageless in that eerie, dangerous way some old men were. Sharp lines, silver hair, but eyes that had never softened. The kind of eyes that could watch a man burn and still check the time.“So,” he said again, taking one step closer. “You’re the boy we didn’t finish.”My spine stiffened. I didn’t answer. My throat was tight, words locked in my throat refusing to come out.He smirked like he could hear my silence loud and clear. “You’ve got the Moretti eyes. I should’ve known. Your brother hides like a coward behind guns and mercenaries, but you—” he tilted his head, “—you walk into my house wearing my son’s loyalty like a suit.”I clench

Eli's povThe way he said it was like he was calm, amused and it made my blood run cold.Silas stood like he’d been waiting. Like he knew I’d come this way. The garden light reflected off the edge of his knife and the blade glinted dangerously.I swallowed.I didn’t move.“You shouldn’t be here,” I said, my voice hused and raspy.He tilted his head. “Oh, Eli. I’m exactly where I should be. You, though?” His eyes narrowed. “You’re the one who’s lost.”“You broke into this house. Planted bombs. You tried to kill—”“I tried to remind you,” he cut in. “Of who you are. Of what they did to our family. And who you should be standing with.”My fists clenched. “What they did to our family? What you did,this revenge obsession, it’s not justice, Silas. It’s poisoning you. You’re burning everything down.”His laugh was bitter, hollow. “You’ve been breathing their air too long. You’ve forgotten what they did to us. How our mother died screaming while Luca’s father put a bullet in her spine.”I swa

Eli's povThe blast was so powerful that it destroyed the decades of concrete reinforcement with steel of the dungeon like itw as mere paler.My body hit the wall hard, shoulder firstthen the floor. All the air left my lungs as dust and heat choked me, ears ringing so loud I thought I’d gone deaf.“LUCA!” I screamed into the void. “LUCA—!”No answer.Just the groan of crumbling walls and the metallic screech of twisted bars.I forced myself up, every limb aching, vision blurred by smoke and blood.Where Silas had been, the wall was now split clean down the middle, like a mouth opening to swallow the house from within. The cell was empty.He was gone.No chains. No blood trail. Nothing but empty metal cuffs hanging uselessly.“Matteo—!” My voice cracked as I stumbled forward. “Luca—!”Then I saw them.Matteo was half-buried beneath a collapsed beam, blood trailing from his temple, but breathing barely. I dropped to my knees, pushing debris off him with shaking hands. “Hey—hey, stay wi

Eli's povThe room was silent. Still. Like time itself had stopped.No one moved.The Hunter's hand pressed down on the shoulder of the man standing in front of him. He said nothing. He didn’t have to.Luca stood rigid beside me. Matteo’s jaw clenched so tight I could hear the grind of his teeth. Every inch of the room was thick with tension, concern, disbelief and the kind of fear that only comes when the impossible becomes real.Then the man looked up.And I felt the world stop spinning on it's axis.Ricardo.Quiet but always present.The man who never said more than he needed to, who followed orders without question, who sat with me after the fight in the foyer that day when no one else could look me in the eye.The man who never smiled too much but who always showed up when you needed him.I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe.“...Ric?” Luca's voice cracked as he spoke. “No. No way.”Matteo’s brows furrowed, eyes scanning Ricardo as if he were trying to find something—anything—that w