Chapter 1367 - Bruno's End (1)

~ Sicily, undisclosed location ~

Bruno opened his eyes with difficulty.

His whole body aches like crazy. What is going on? Where is he?

His mind is hazy, and it took him some time for his sight to focus enough so that he can observe his surroundings and realize that he is in a familiar place. These bloodstained white walls, the table with knives, some of the blades are rusted… he is lying on the bed and without looking, he knows that there is a table with two chairs on the side. This is the room in the house at the back of Angelo's property which they use for interrogating people.

Bruno exhaled in relief. He is home, but why is he here?

Angelo is sitting on the chair with his hands resting on the table in front of him while looking at Bruno who is gradually coming out of the anesthesia-induced sleep. Angelo is here for more than half an hour, waiting for Bruno to wake up.

When Angelo saw Bruno's sorry appearance, he was sure that the two kids (aka Tejan and Daniel) brought the wrong person. But they were wearing black uniforms and masks on their faces which definitely identifies them as members of the army of Chaos. Would the army of Chaos give him the wrong man?

The two kids who delivered Bruno gave him some bottle and instructions on how to use it to wake up Bruno before the anesthetic wears off, but Angelo thought how he should let Bruno wake up on his own. It will give him some extra time to think.

Angelo was confident that he has this figured out, but now that Bruno is awake, his thoughts clashed with his emotions and he is a mess.

Angelo has the evidence which Nyx and Erebus (aka Sarah and Aiden) gave him, and his people examined it with results that the videos are genuine. They also confirmed that Bruno was in Los Angeles, and Angelo interrogated three people who helped Bruno gather information on Emma. One of the men even said how Bruno was curious to find out more about the degrees of loyalty that higher-ups in Nero armi have toward Angelo.

Now that he has all this information, Angelo still struggles to accept the obvious.

Is it possible that Bruno harbors thoughts of eliminating him and his children, just so that he can be the next capo? Emma, Mike, Sean, and Ryan don't know about Nero armi or anything related to it (well, now they know, but Angelo is not aware of it). Do they deserve death only because of who their father is? Doesn't that make his action from two decades ago useless?

Angelo is confident that he knows what he will say. He will reveal to Bruno what he found out and ask for an explanation. If Bruno denies it, he will show him photos and videos and take it from there.

One part of Angelo still hopes that this is not true. He hopes that Bruno will deny it and convince him how all this is a big setup. What is the worst case if he goes against the army of Chaos? A war? If that happens, Angelo will tell his men the situation and let them decide for themselves if they want to run, surrender to the army of Chaos, or stay and fight.

Angelo knows that in the case of a war, there is no safe exit for him, but maybe he does not need one. Maybe he is tired of fighting and tired of everything and wants all this to end. Angelo is not suicidal, but he saw Sarah and Aiden interact and he would be lying if he says that he didn't observe how the two of them are having fun.

It was a long time ago since Angelo felt any joy... The real one which fills his heart and forces a smile on his face. Was it twenty years ago, or more? Twenty years ago, it sounds about right, just before he found out that his Dona was kidnapped in order to get to him. After that, it was a long period of anger and dejection, depression maybe, until it became emptiness. And now he is looking at Bruno and the thought of Bruno betraying him to the point of erasing his bloodline brings something new: soul-shattering pain.

Angelo was always good at shutting down his emotions and using his head to navigate through life. That is what kept him alive so far. That is what kept him sane. But right now, that is crumbling, and his swelling emotions are suffocating.

"Hi Bruno, do you hear me? Can you talk?"

Bruno groaned before responding in a hoarse voice: "Yes. Why are we here?"

"I'm not sure. It was between your room, or here, and at that time I thought that this is more appropriate."

Bruno's eyes darted around as images of Emma and JoAnna flashed in front of his mind and he was consumed in panic: does Angelo know? That would explain why they are here.

Bruno reminded himself to stay calm. There is a chance that Angelo does not know where he was and with what agenda, but Angelo only wants to punish him because he was careless enough to get beaten up. After all, Angelo trusts him. "How did I get here? The last thing I remember is that I was on a vacation in California."

Angelo nodded before responding: "You were unconscious when you arrived. Did you have a good vacation? Based on your appearance, it does not look like it. Do you remember how you ended up like this?"

Bruno was not sure how to respond. His memories are jumbled and the pieces which are showing up are not something he wants to disclose to Angelo, so he decided to buy some time until he comes up with a good story. "I have a headache and I can't remember much."

Angelo sighed. "Maybe this can help…"

Angelo opened the laptop and played the video.

Bruno watched the soundless video of him standing behind Emma in the coffee shop and then the coffee spilling incident and them talking… all the way to the point when the two of them exited the coffee shop with a bodyguard following close behind them.

"Do you remember this?", Angelo asked Bruno even though Bruno's petrified expression told him everything he needed to know. "Do you have an explanation of why you approached Emma while staging it to be an accident?"

Bruno wanted to say something, anything… the pain in his body was increasing, as a definite sign that the last bits of the anesthetic are wearing off and he was not sure what to say, but he has to do something…

"I was curious about your daughter and I wanted to meet her."

"And?"

"She is… nice. She offered me a coffee and a new shirt, and even my existing one to be cleaned even though she was rushing not to be late for a meeting."

"Did she buy you a coffee? A shirt? Did she clean the existing one?"

Bruno wondered if Angelo is a mind reader or he knows this somehow. Did Angelo get someone to follow him? Whichever it is, there is no value in lying about it... "She got me two shirts and took mine for cleaning."

Angelo played the next video which showed Bruno and Emma in the boutique. 

When the video ended, Angelo exhaled loudly. "You missed the point that Emma's fiancé, Charles Smith is the one who bought you two shirts, but other than that, your story matches what I have."

Bruno's eyes darted nervously from the laptop to Angelo. "What do you have?"

"Why don't you tell me what happened in Los Angeles? You can start by telling me why you went there and why you approached Emma…"

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