Chapter 8 - Khloe Learned Her Grandmother Might Be the Woman Behind the Mafia War—Then Sofia Revealed Why She Had Really Run From Chicago
Sofia Bennett had lied twice.
The first lie protected Khloe from Anthony.
The second protected her from Isabella Caruso.
That was harder to forgive.
Khloe listened while her mother explained.
Isabella had been born in Palermo.
Married into the Caruso family at seventeen.
Widowed at thirty-nine.
And supposedly killed in Sicily four years later.
Supposedly.
“She came to Chicago after everyone thought she was dead,” Sofia said.
“When?”
“The year before Antonio died.”
Khloe stared.
“You saw her?”
“Yes.”
“And never told me?”
“I was nineteen.”
“You've had decades since.”
Sofia looked away.
Khloe laughed bitterly.
“Here we go again.”
“Khloe—”
“No.”
Enzo stayed silent.
This was not his fight.
Progress.
Sofia continued.
“My mother believed peace between the Carusos and Biankes would make both families weak.”
“So she helped Anthony?”
“I don't know.”
“You just said—”
“I knew she opposed Antonio. I didn't know she wanted him dead.”
Khloe crossed her arms.
“Why did you run?”
“Because after Antonio died, my mother came to me.”
Sofia swallowed.
“She told me Anthony had done what was necessary.”
Enzo became still.
“She knew.”
“Yes.”
“And you didn't tell me?”
“I didn't know if she meant poisoning.”
“Did you ask?”
“No.”
Enzo laughed without humor.
“Everyone in our parents' generation had a remarkable allergy to questions.”
Khloe almost smiled.
Almost.
Sofia continued.
“She told me to return to the Carusos. I refused.”
“Because of Dad?”
“Daniel was part of it.”
Sofia looked at her daughter.
“But mostly because I was pregnant.”
Khloe froze.
“With me?”
“Yes.”
“My mother told me a daughter with Caruso blood belonged to the family.”
Khloe's skin went cold.
“She wanted me.”
“Yes.”
“So you disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“And Dad?”
“He chose us.”
That softened something.
Not enough.
But something.
Then Rachel received news.
Marcus Vale had vanished.
His chambers empty.
Bank accounts drained.
Private plane grounded.
Passport unused.
A photograph found on his desk showed him beside Isabella Caruso.
Taken eight months earlier.
Khloe stared.
Her grandmother was alive.
At least recently.
Then an address arrived anonymously.
No message.
Just coordinates.
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
Enzo looked at Khloe.
“No.”
She raised an eyebrow.
He corrected immediately.
“I would strongly prefer that you not go.”
“Much better.”
“I'm learning under extreme pressure.”
They did not rush to Wisconsin.
They investigated.
Property records showed the estate belonged to Belladonna Holdings.
Purchased thirty-one years earlier.
Rachel obtained a warrant.
Federal teams moved first.
Khloe, Enzo, Sofia, and Frankie waited miles away.
Then Rachel called.
“There is someone here.”
“Isabella?” Khloe asked.
“No.”
“Vale?”
“No.”
“Who?”
Rachel hesitated.
“A girl.”
Khloe's stomach tightened.
“How old?”
“About seventeen.”
“Who is she?”
“She says her name is Elena Russo.”
Gabriella stood.
“My sister.”
Everyone turned.
“You said your father only had you.”
“He did.”
Apparently not.
Elena claimed Samuel Russo had brought her home as an infant and raised her secretly under another identity.
She wasn't his biological daughter.
Her birth certificate was false.
DNA testing revealed something nobody expected.
Elena was a Bianke.
Close relative to Enzo.
Likely half-sibling.
Enzo stared at the result.
“My father had another child?”
The timeline fit.
Barely.
But Elena was seventeen.
Antonio had been dead far longer.
Impossible.
Then genetics clarified.
Not sibling.
Niece.
Elena's father was Julian Bianke.
Enzo's cousin, believed dead in 2008.
And Elena's mother?
Unknown.
Until Khloe found a photograph hidden inside the estate.
A woman holding an infant.
On the back:
FOR THE WIDOW—THE NEXT GENERATION.
Khloe recognized the woman.
She had seen her before.
At Enzo's sentencing.
Sitting in the back row.
At Anthony's trial.
Again.
At their interrupted wedding.
Catering staff.
Khloe whispered:
“She was there.”
Frankie looked.
“Who?”
Khloe enlarged the face.
Gabriella went pale.
“My mother.”
The woman believed dead six days earlier.
And suddenly Gabriella understood.
Her father hadn't been murdered because he found Belladonna.
May you like
He had been murdered because his own wife was part of it.
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