All Chapters of Truth in My Brain, Blood on Their Hands: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

The Caruso family's secret council chamber was brightly lit, its tiered gallery packed to the rafters with thousands of family members.I was trapped in the judgment chair at the center of the room. Someone held my shoulders down while cold metal restraints locked around my wrists and ankles.When I tried to struggle, a faint cramp pulled in my abdomen."Let me go…"Pale-faced, I lifted my head and looked at the man standing on the platform."Damiano, please. I'm begging you. Don't do this."Damiano Caruso stood under the glaring spotlights in a tailored black suit, his expression stark and unreadable.Those eyes that had once looked at me with tenderness were now filled with iciness and doubt.Around me, a team of researchers was busy calibrating the equipment. A silver helmet began to hum, casting an eerie blue glow onto the platform.The silence in the gallery was deafening.I knew that once they started the machine, every secret tucked away in my mind would be ripped out

A shrill alarm tore through the chamber, and the researcher monitoring my vitals instantly went pale."The subject's brain waves are abnormal. Her vitals are tanking!"The head researcher pulled off his headset, panic creeping into his voice."Her body can't handle a memory extraction of that level. If we force this sequence any further, it's going to cause permanent, irreversible brain damage!"Teresa threw herself at me like a madwoman. "Bianca, where on earth is Caterina? Tell us! Do you actually want her to die out there?"She struck me across the face over and over again. Blood pooled at the corner of my mouth, and my vision dimmed.The truth rose to the tip of my tongue, but I forced the words back down my throat as I offered a desperate plea. "I can't tell you… Please don't make me!"Damiano's eyes remained locked on mine, filled with a mix of betrayal, disappointment, and an almost pathological obsession."Bianca, this is your final chance. If you won't say it yourself,

Damiano's words plunged the council chamber into a brief, suffocating silence.It took Teresa several seconds to snap out of her daze before shooting to her feet."Damiano, Caterina went to such extremes for you! She even had the guts to drug you," she bellowed. "Now that she's fallen pregnant, you think you can just wash your hands clean of her by saying the baby isn't yours?"Damiano's expression darkened. "Mother, I said I never touched her."Teresa let out a bitter chuckle, her eyes rimmed red. "Then, where did the baby come from? Do you really think a girl would destroy her own reputation with a lie like that?"The entire council chamber remained dead silent. Teresa, however, seemed to have reached the end of her restraint."If you hadn't dug your heels in back then, I never would've accepted Bianca as my daughter-in-law. A stranger can never compare to Caterina, whose background we know inside and out."Caterina grew up right here in the Caruso residence. She knows the rul

My body was already so weak that I couldn't withstand Teresa's slap. Blood began to trickle from the corner of my mouth, and the judgment chair beneath me was already stained red.Even so, Teresa looked right through it and demanded, "Say something! This is all fake, isn't it? The baby has to be Damiano's! I knew you were trouble from the start. When Damiano insisted on marrying you, I should've fought tooth and nail to stop him."I slowly let my eyelids fall. Feeling my life slipping away, I no longer had the energy to argue.In my memory, Caterina was sobbing hysterically. "Bianca, I don't know how it ended up like this. I only wanted Damiano to fall for me. I never, ever thought it would turn out like this…"At that point, Caterina no longer looked like the spoiled, arrogant girl everyone knew. She looked like a thoroughly devastated little girl, curled into a ball in the corner of the couch, clutching her knees as her entire frame shook violently.She had discovered she was pr

The truth didn't die with me, and the real hell was only just beginning.Three days after my death, the elders secretly retrieved all the backup surveillance footage from Christmas night.Emilio thought that once the surveillance footage had been scrubbed clean, every trace of his crime would vanish with it. He had forgotten that in a mafia family like the Caruso family, a secondary, entirely independent backup system always ran in secret to prevent an internal betrayal.No one knew that only the elders had access to it.The day the footage was restored, a heavy, suffocating silence fell over the Consiglio dei Vecchi.On screen, Emilio was seen walking into the back wing late at night. Hours later, he walked back out, his clothing completely disheveled.At that moment, the truth was all but laid bare.When Teresa saw the footage, she let out a chilling shriek. She lunged forward, clawing at Emilio's face until it was a bloody mess."You bastard! We raised her as our own! How co