Chapter 5 - The Heir No One Expected
The confession changed everything.
Vittorio was arrested before he reached the street.
Davis was taken with him.
The ledger was secured.
For two days, Khloe slept almost not at all.
The authorities questioned her.
Lawyers contacted her.
Accountants appeared with folders thick enough to fill a suitcase.
Apparently her mother had left behind multiple trusts.
Businesses.
Property.
Accounts in three countries.
Khloe hated every minute of it.
“I don't want this.”
Enzo sat across from her.
“You're allowed to refuse.”
“That easy?”
“No.”
He looked at the stack of documents.
“But you can choose what happens to it.”
Khloe stared.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“You knew I was rich.”
“I knew you were important.”
She laughed.
“I spent 4 years thinking I was one emergency away from sleeping in my car.”
Enzo looked uncomfortable.
“I could have told you sooner.”
“You didn't know me.”
“No.”
A pause.
“But I wanted to.”
Khloe looked up.
“What does that mean?”
Enzo did not answer.
Before the conversation could continue, his phone rang.
Frankie.
Enzo answered.
Then his expression changed.
“What?”
Khloe watched him.
“Where?”
He stood.
“Stay here.”
“What happened?”
“My cousin disappeared.”
“Who?”
“Luca.”
“Why should I care?”
Enzo looked at her.
“Because he was the last person who saw your mother before she died.”
They found Luca in an abandoned hotel.
He had been beaten.
But alive.
Khloe asked:
“What did my mother tell you?”
Luca looked at her.
“She told me you were stronger than she was.”
Khloe swallowed.
“What else?”
“She told me Enzo would protect you.”
Khloe looked at Enzo.
“Why?”
Luca smiled weakly.
“She knew you two would need each other.”
Enzo looked away.
Khloe's face warmed.
“This is not a romantic prophecy.”
Luca laughed.
“No.”
A pause.
“It was a warning.”
“What warning?”
Luca's smile disappeared.
“She knew Vittorio wasn't working alone.”
Enzo stiffened.
“Who else?”
Luca looked at Khloe.
“Your grandmother.”
Khloe's heart stopped.
“My grandmother is dead.”
“She was.”
“What does that mean?”
Luca reached into his coat.
He pulled out another photograph.
Khloe recognized the woman immediately.
Her grandmother.
But beneath the photograph was a passport.
New name.
New identity.
Recent photograph.
Khloe stared.
“She isn't dead.”
Luca shook his head.
“She disappeared the same night your father did.”
“Why?”
“Because she knew why Marco stole the ledger.”
Khloe's hands trembled.
“Tell me.”
Luca pointed at the first page.
“Read the numbers.”
Khloe had assumed they were financial records.
She looked again.
Every transaction had a corresponding number.
She noticed something.
The numbers were coordinates.
Locations.
Safe houses.
And one location repeated more than any other.
A hospital.
The same hospital where her mother had died.
Enzo called immediately.
The medical records department had been compromised.
Someone had altered the security logs.
Khloe and Enzo went there that night.
The basement archive was empty.
A single nurse remained.
She saw Khloe and began crying.
“Your mother asked me to keep something safe.”
“What?”
“A blood sample.”
Khloe stared.
“Why?”
The nurse handed her a sealed envelope.
“Your mother believed someone would question whether you were really her daughter.”
Khloe looked at the envelope.
Inside was a DNA report.
The result confirmed something she had never considered.
Her biological father was Marco Bennett.
But the second page contained another result.
A close genetic match.
Enzo.
Khloe looked up.
“What?”
The nurse pointed to the report.
“The test was done years ago.”
Enzo took it.
He read.
Then his face changed.
“He's my half-brother.”
Khloe stared at him.
Her father had shared a mother with Enzo.
That meant the family was even more intertwined than anyone had known.
The photograph from her childhood suddenly made sense.
Enzo had been protecting her since they were children without realizing why.
Khloe sat down.
“This is too much.”
Enzo knelt beside her.
“You don't have to process everything tonight.”
She looked at him.
“Why do you keep protecting me?”
His eyes remained on hers.
“I don't know how not to.”
For a moment, neither moved.
Then Enzo's phone rang again.
A message.
One line.
Your mother wasn't the victim.
She was the mastermind.
Khloe read it over his shoulder.
“That isn't true.”
Enzo didn't answer.
They went back through the ledger.
They found hidden entries.
Payments made by Khloe's mother.
Years before the supposed corruption.
She had been moving money.
Building accounts.
Buying properties.
Bribing officials.
Khloe stared.
“My mother did all this?”
Enzo nodded.
The picture was horrifying.
Maybe her mother had not been protecting her from the family.
Maybe she had been building an empire for her.
Khloe turned another page.
There was one final note.
Everything I did was to keep my daughter free.
The money was protection.
The power was insurance.
The lies were love.
Khloe began to cry.
Enzo put a hand on her shoulder.
“She loved you.”
“I don't know who she was.”
“You don't have to become her.”
Khloe looked at him.
“And you?”
“What?”
“Who are you?”
Enzo smiled faintly.
“Still figuring that out.”
She looked at the ledger.
“We can destroy all of this.”
“Yes.”
“We can walk away.”
“Yes.”
“Then why haven't you?”
He answered quietly.
“Because there are still people looking for you.”
Khloe sighed.
“Always.”
Enzo's phone rang again.
This time the message contained a photograph.
A house.
An address.
And 3 words.
We have your brother.
Khloe's blood ran cold.
“Who is my brother?”
May you like
Enzo stared at the picture.
“We need to find out.”
