Discovering Lila Novel – My seven brothers blame me for the death of both parents and my twin. My family has broken apart, and so have I. Now at the age of 15, I am a renowned fashion designer and the future Donna of the French Mafia. But I am still lost. I am still broken and trying to be fixed. “Okay but how do I heal?” I question my therapist. “By talking to your brothers or write down in your diary.” One day, my brothers find my diary. “You find her and you bring her home. If she has even one scratch on her head, you will be in big trouble!” My brother shouts.
Humming, I watch as the elevator numbers slowly go up, rising to my office floor. Level 79. The top floor, overlooking the whole of New York. It’s one of my favourite places, my building being so high up that I can see every building in New York City for a couple of miles. I bought the apartment for us a year ago when I realised I could no longer stay with my brothers anymore. Everything got too tough and I had recently stopped self-harming and didn’t want to relapse by continuing to live there, so I left. I still go back occasionally, just to grab a few things and to not raise suspicion to my CPS or my brothers, not like they would care anyway though. And I know, you may be wondering how I did it all considering I’m still underage. I’m only 15 after all.
I just used my fake ID that I use for my assassin jobs, which made my age 19, and then bought it using the money I saved. I don’t think my biological “family” (if you even can call those monsters family) know but even if they did it’s not like they would care anyways. Not since they blame me for the death of everyone we loved. Anyways, after I bought the apartment, Grey came to live with me as I didn’t want him living at home anymore. His parents were abusive towards him and I didn’t want to see my best friend hurt. So, now we live together in our glorious apartment, and life couldn’t be better. I’ve felt genuinely happier than I have in a long time. ~Time skip~ The elevator finally stops, opening me up to my office.
The walls of my office were made of pure glass, allowing me to have a vast view of the New York skyline. The whole of this top floor was mine, giving me the peace and quiet needed for my various tasks of the day. Straightening out my fitted white suit, I walked to my huge oak desk and glanced at the heaps of paperwork and meetings scheduled. It was going to be a long day… ~Time skip to later in the night~ If the phone rings one more time I swear to god I am going to throw it at the glass walls and out the window. *ring ring* I pick it up, speaking in my usual, cold working voice, “Hale Industries, Lucy Hale.” “Lila Hale don’t use that tone with me young lady!” Grey scolded me like he was my mother. What is this kid on. Whatever it is, give me some. “Where are you? I ordered Chinese food and it’s getting cold.” he whined. He hated cold Chinese food.
I hated cold Chinese food. The only food that was nice cold was pizza, prove me wrong. Especially eating pizza straight from the fridge at 3am. That’s the dream… “Lila? You there?” He questioned. “Yeah I’m here Grey. Just finishing up some work at H.I. (Hale Industries). I’ve got one more meeting and then I’m done for the day. Just eat without home and I’ll eat after kay?” I grumbled. “Just be quick. And call me before you leave so that I can walk you back if its dark.” Grey said “I’m not a baby. I can walk home by myself. And I’m an assassin. A good one as well.” I grumbled, cheeks turning a shade of pink. “I don’t care. You’re my best friend and I’m walking you back. Okay? Okay, I’m going to go and finish my book. Have fun!” I could almost hear his smile through the phone. I grumbled a bye before hanging up and finishing my paperwork and new sketches for my upcoming collection release. Then, I stood up, stretched my legs and walked to my conference room for my final meeting of the day. ~Time Skip~ That bloody meeting went on longer than I thought.
A little after 1 in the morning. I didn’t want to wake Grey and it was only a short walk of 20 minutes so I walked by myself. It was peaceful. I like the night, it’s calm and quiet, and if you’re especially lucky, you can see thousands of stars gazing down at you. Like a sheet of dark velvet was sprinkled with thousands of sparkling diamonds. I popped open the door to the apartment as quietly as I could and lightly trodded in, my high heels making no noise whatsoever on the tiled floors due to my extensive assassin training. It was times like these that I was glad I was trained from a young age, it gave me the skill to walk past people without them knowing, especially overprotective best friends. And it was all going so well, I was almost at my bedroom, ready to rip this blazer off and jump into a fluffy hoodie, until my bloody phone started ringing. “God!” I heard from the couch where Grey had fallen asleep, surrounded by an array of Chinese food. Silently, I grabbed my phone out of my bag, feeling is disappointed glare on my head as he sat up on the couch. “Hale speaking.” I angrily growled into the phone.
Who had the audacity to call my phone at 1:30am. “It better be an emergency.” ~Now~ Running down the dark alleyway, I chase the footsteps from up ahead. The dim streetlights flicker in the pitch black night as my chunky black combat boots slosh in the murky puddles surrounding me. Raindrops block my vision as I swerve between the side roads, running fast to catch up with my target. Suddenly, the footsteps stop. He’s hiding. “Come out come out wherever you are, you scumbag.” I manically chant. “You are going to pay for what you did to those people, those innocent people. And I will make sure of it.” I had been tracking him for over a week, finding out every single piece of information I could so that I could take him down. You see, he was trafficking women and children and selling them at underground auctions.
Sick prick. So, for the last week I’ve been tracking his every move so that I could kidnap him and torture the information out of him and save all those innocent lives. Sounds brutal, I know. But he deserves it. And, if not me, someone else would have done the same thing. Or he would have just ended up selling more and more people. “Where are you, Andreas Rossini. You don’t want to make me mad, do you? You’ve heard what happens when I GET MAD.” I say in my coldest voice. I sharply turned the corner and pushed the garbage can out the way, cornering Andreas. I raised my gun and pointed it swiftly at his temple. His skin paled had he flinched away, raising his hands in surrender. “Please, please don’t hurt me.” He cried. “Please, I beg you.” But I was not about to give this man sympathy. No. He far from deserved it. No, I was going to torture him. Make him wish that he’d never hurt those innocent people. I was going to make him wish he was never born.
I laughed silently, I was going to watch as the light slowly left his eyes. “Too late, fuckface. You deserve everything that is coming to you.” I growled, before swiftly shooting him in the shoulder. As he wailed out in pain, dropping to my feet, I smiled a sadistic smile, glad to see he is beginning to pay for his crimes. Then, going back to my neutral expression, I said “I’m getting tired of your pointless moaning, you weak baby.” And with that, I swept the back of his head with my gun, knocking him out in one quick move. Climbing the steps to the apartment, I realised that I needed to head back to my biological siblings’ home, just to avoid suspicion, make it look to the outside world like I am still living there. Clutching my blood soaked jacket around my body, I entered the keys into the lock and stepped into the only place I felt safe, awaiting my best friend and the now cold Chinese food that I had been looking forward to for far too long. If only the peace that rested through my body could last… “Lila. You need to talk to me. I know it’s hard but you can do it.”
My therapist has high hopes. Dr Ellis Smith-Barren has high high hopes. Unreachable hopes. “Honestly, we’ve been doing these therapy sessions for three years now. I’m better, honest. You know that. There’s nothing more for me to say.” I argue. She sighs. Disappointment lies on her face. Disappointment that I get from about everybody in my life. Because I am a disappointment. It’s me. I can’t do anything right. Just like with Grey, with my friends, with my family, with Lena. “…Lila? Are you listening to me?” “Sorry what was that?” I reply, utterly confused due to my zoning out. “I said that you have improved. Greatly. Honestly, in such a short amount of time, you have improved more that any of my other patients I’ve ever had. I couldn’t be more proud of you. And from everything you’ve been through, with the kidnapping, with Elena’s death, the death of your parents, the neglect and verbal abuse of your brothers,” I freeze at her words, “you’ve been through more than anyone should have ever dealt with in a life time.
And I am so so proud. But, in order to fully recover to the best of your ability, you need to heal. Not push your emotions down. You need to heal.” “Okay but how do I heal?” I question, irritated by the riddles but keeping my face neutral as always. “By talking to your brothers.” Nope. No. Absolutely not. “Nu uh not happening ABSOLUTELY NOT. Those idiots have hurt me more than anyone else and I’m not tolerating it anymore. No. No way.” “Lila. Listen to me. If you do not speak to them, I do not think you can fully heal. I think you know that too. You have unfinished business with them. Isn’t that why you go back a couple times a week? Surely it isn’t because you’re worried about CPS. You want them and you’re scared to let them go.” I scoffed.
“That’s ridiculous. I don’t want them and I don’t need them to heal. I am done with them.” I spoke, my temper rising. “You might think so, Lila, but you do need them. And they may need you too.” I don’t reply, unconvinced. She sighs again. I honestly wonder how she is still my therapist. How is she not fed up of me already? And how is she still okay considering my first four therapists needed therapy themselves after talking with me for the first time! “How about the diary. How has that been going.” I had forgotten about the stupid book for a few days. It hadn’t gone well. Everything in there is sad and depressing and makes me even sadder reading about it. It’s like I can’t even be happy for one moment in my life. “Not great. I’m still convinced it’s a waste of time.” I answer finally. “I know, but give it time. You never know. It could really help.”