Buried Alive, I Left the Don My Blood-Written Truth Chapter 11
Lily clutched my sleeve.
“Mommy, do I have to answer? I’m a little scared of him.”
Those words hurt worse than Margaret’s knife ever had. I said softly, “No. You don’t have to answer if you
don’t want to.” At dawn, Adrian ordered the well filled in and planted begonias over it. Lily asked quietly,
“Mommy, are begonias pretty?”
“Yes. They bloom in spring.”
She thought for a moment.
“Then are we still going to live here?”
I looked at the well that had been filled.
“No.”
Ava stood beside Adrian and looked at the cuts all over his hands. Her voice did not soften.
“Don Moretti, filling the well won’t bring back the dead.”
Adrian said, “I know.”
“You don’t. Everything you do now is just another way of begging Elena to look back.”
Adrian was silent for a long time.
“Did she look?”
Ava didn’t answer. Lily tugged my hand.
“Mommy, didn’t Daddy love me?”
I looked at Adrian kneeling in the mud. Nothing about him looked like Don Moretti anymore.
“He loved you. He just came too late.”
“Does Mommy still like Daddy?”
I had, once. Enough to leave the Hayes family and move into the rule-bound Moretti compound. Enough to lose sleep every time he rode out to the border outposts. Enough to turn every careless, cold word from him into ten excuses. But love doesn’t disappear all at once. Mine was ground away inside that coffin, over three days and three nights. I said softly, “I used to.” Adrian lifted his head, as if he had heard me. But there was only wind in front of him. That night, he knelt before the grave. A cut had already opened on his wrist. Ava
snatched the dagger from him. Her voice was ice.
“Death would be release. Living is repayment.”
“Elena died in a coffin. Lily died in a well. One stroke of the blade, and people might call you devoted for
following them. But why should they have to see you in the next world too?”
Adrian went ashen.
“Then what do I do?”
“Live. Remember. Don’t let another family turn a daughter into a sacrifice.”
Adrian surrendered the Don’s ring. The Family Council wouldn’t let him vanish completely. They stripped him
of succession rights and left him with the Moretti name, but none of its power. He gave portions of the Moretti holdings to the families of girls harmed by Mara’s rituals. Then he founded the Lily-Elena Academy for Girls outside New York. He carved the plaque himself. Lily-Elena Academy for Girls. Every girl who enrolled received a small silver bell. Adrian hung each one himself. For every bell, he said the same words.
“Grow up safe.”
Ava stood at the gate and watched him.
“Don Moretti, doing this won’t bring Elena back.”
Adrian nodded.
“She can’t come back. But maybe someone else’s child can live.”
On the day Margaret was executed, Adrian knelt before Lily’s grave and mine.
“Elena, my mother was executed today. I didn’t go see her off. I’m not asking you to feel satisfied. I only hope it doesn’t hurt anymore.”
Lily sat beside me, swinging her feet.
“Mommy, he’s here again.”
“Mm.”
“Will he keep coming?”
“Maybe.”
“Then should we see him?”
I shook my head.
“No.”
For many years after that, he never remarried. The begonias in the backyard bloomed every spring, red as blood. The Lily-Elena Academy for Girls expanded year after year. Thirty years later, many women in New York were studying, practicing medicine, keeping accounts, and opening shops. On Lily’s birthday, he still made rattles. He placed them one by one before the grave.
‘Lily, Daddy’s hands are clumsy. This one doesn’t sound very good.”
He shook it. His voice came out hoarse.
“If you think it’s ugly, you can yell at Daddy in a dream.”
Lily lay across my lap and whispered, “Mommy, it isn’t ugly.” I stroked her head.
“Then we don’t need to tell him.”
In the year Adrian died, Ava had become one of New York’s first female medical examiners. She came to see
him one last time. Adrian lay in bed. His breathing was very light.
“Ava, can I see them?”
Ava was silent for a moment.
“That’s her decision.”
Outside the door, begonias had fallen all over the ground. I stood there, holding Lily’s hand. Adrian saw us.
Light flickered into his eyes.
“Elena. Lily.”
Lily hid behind me, then peeked out.
“Daddy.”
Tears rolled down Adrian’s face.
“Can I go with you?”
I looked at him. Regret had worn the once-proud Don down into an old man. But the darkness inside the coffin and the water in the well didn’t disappear just because he had grown old. I held Lily’s hand and took
one step back.
“Adrian, we went home a long time ago.”
The silver bell rang one last time. Lily pulled me toward the rain of begonia petals. Behind us came Adrian’s
faint voice.
“Elena. Lily. I still owe you an apology.”
I didn’t look back. Lily lifted her face and asked, “Mommy, where are we going?” I held her little hand tighter.
“Home.”
Before Adrian closed his eyes, he finally heard my last words.
“This time, I won’t wait for him.”
