Chapter 100 - You've lost...

Lilianna

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I remembered. I suddenly remembered everything. It came in flashes, painful and blinding, then settled into the back of my mind like a festering wound. Marcello. I had named him Marcello. He was real, as real as everything around me right now. I held him, fed him, and put him to sleep for two whole days before he was ripped from my arms forever.

A gut-wrenching sob tore through me, muffled by the gag. Tears flowed down the sides of my face as I shook my head, trying to escape the agony. My body trembled with the force of my grief. I can't do this. I can't do this anymore.

The memory of his tiny fingers grasping mine, his innocent eyes staring up at me, was like a knife twisting in my heart. I felt every moment, every heartbeat, every breath I shared with him. It was all so vivid, so painfully real. And then it was gone. He was gone.

But right now, I shoved the pain to the back of my mind. I had to stay focused, stay in this moment because there was another life to