Chapter 4 - The Woman Damian Thought Was Dead
The woman standing in the doorway was Elena Russo.
Damian's mother.
The woman he had buried.
The woman whose photograph he kept hidden in a drawer because looking at it hurt too much.
He could not move.
For years, Damian had carried a single memory.
His father sitting beside him at the kitchen table.
Damian was sixteen.
His mother had died.
There had been an accident.
A car.
Rain.
A sharp turn.
A coffin.
A funeral.
Everything had been explained.
Everything had been false.
Elena approached slowly.
"Damian."
He stepped backward.
"Don't."
Her eyes filled with tears.
"I didn't want this."
"You let me believe you were dead."
"I thought it was the only way."
"Fifteen years."
Her voice broke.
"I know."
Damian's hands shook.
Khloe watched him.
She had seen Damian angry.
She had seen him threaten men twice his size without blinking.
She had never seen him hurt.
This was different.
This was a wound so old it had become part of him.
Elena looked at Khloe.
"I'm sorry for what happened to you."
Khloe's voice trembled.
"You know my mother."
"I knew Evelyn better than anyone."
Victor laughed bitterly from the floor.
"That's not true."
Elena turned.
"Victor."
"You always blamed me."
"I should have."
Damian stared at them.
"Someone explain."
Elena took a breath.
"Your father was building an empire, but someone inside the family was selling information to federal investigators and rival organizations."
"Victor?"
"No."
Victor shook his head.
"It was someone else."
Elena continued.
"Your father discovered the betrayal and planned to expose everyone."
"And then?"
"He was stopped."
Damian's face tightened.
"By whom?"
Elena looked at Khloe.
"By the person who had access to every ledger."
Khloe whispered.
"My mother."
Elena nodded.
"Your mother was trying to save your father."
"She failed."
"No."
Elena's voice became quiet.
"She succeeded."
Damian stared.
"Your father didn't die when you were told he did."
Another shock.
"He lived for three more years."
Damian's entire world shifted.
"What?"
"Your father left the organization."
"Then why did I become head?"
"Because people believed you had to."
Elena looked down.
"Your father wanted you far away from the life."
"He failed."
"Because I disappeared."
Damian looked at her.
"Why?"
"Because the traitor had proof that your family was being watched."
Elena explained that a secret federal task force had been monitoring the Russo syndicate for years.
Someone within the organization had been feeding them information.
The betrayal reached so deeply into the family that Elena feared Damian would eventually be used as leverage.
So she staged her death.
She took Khloe's mother with her.
Evelyn had been pregnant.
With Victor's child.
Khloe.
Damian stared at Khloe.
"You knew?"
Khloe nodded.
"Not all of it."
"What did you know?"
"That my mother was alive."
Damian's eyes hardened.
"Since when?"
"Since six months ago."
He felt betrayed.
"You worked beside me for three years."
"I was trying to protect you."
"By hiding my mother?"
Khloe cried.
"I was trying to understand what was happening before I told you."
Damian turned away.
He could barely breathe.
Then his phone rang.
Leo.
Damian answered.
"Boss, we have a problem."
"What?"
"Bruno is gone."
Damian's face hardened.
"What do you mean?"
"He disappeared from the hospital."
"How?"
"He had help."
Damian looked at Elena.
Then Victor.
Then Khloe.
Everyone had been lying.
And someone had been moving pieces long before Khloe vanished.
A message arrived.
A photograph.
It showed Bruno standing beside a woman.
The woman was Elena Russo.
Damian stared.
"When was this taken?"
Khloe stepped closer.
"Yesterday."
Damian looked at his mother.
Elena's face drained of color.
"That's impossible."
"Why?"
"Because I haven't seen Bruno in fifteen years."
Victor suddenly laughed.
Damian turned.
"What?"
Victor looked at Elena.
"You still don't understand."
"Understand what?"
Victor pointed toward the photograph.
"That isn't Elena."
Silence.
Khloe looked at the woman.
It was true.
The photograph was similar.
But not Elena.
The hair.
The jawline.
The ring.
It was someone impersonating her.
Damian's eyes narrowed.
"Who?"
Victor whispered a name.
"Marianne."
Elena's younger sister.
Damian's aunt.
The woman who had supposedly died in Europe.
Another ghost.
Another dead person.
Another lie.
Damian turned toward Khloe.
"How many people in this family are actually alive?"
Khloe gave a nervous laugh through her tears.
"Apparently, too many."
For the first time that night, Damian almost smiled.
Then a gunshot shattered the window.
Everyone dropped.
Glass exploded across the floor.
Damian pulled Khloe behind him.
Leo shouted from the corridor.
"Sniper!"
Damian looked through the broken window.
A red light blinked from a rooftop across the street.
He understood immediately.
They weren't trying to kill him.
They were trying to force him to move.
He looked at Khloe.
"We leave. Now."
"Where?"
"My father's estate."
"Why?"
"Because that's the one place nobody believes still exists."
They rushed through the underground tunnel.
Outside, the city moved as normal.
Taxis.
Lights.
People.
Nobody knew that a war had started beneath them.
At the estate, Damian unlocked an old steel door.
Inside was a room untouched for decades.
His father's study.
Dust covered everything.
Khloe walked toward an old desk.
She touched the surface.
"There."
A hidden drawer opened.
Inside was another envelope.
Damian took it.
This one was addressed to both of them.
Damian Russo and Khloe Hayes.
They looked at each other.
Damian opened it.
The first sentence read:
If you are reading this together, then the enemy has already succeeded in bringing you closer than I ever dared hope.
Damian stopped.
Khloe looked at him.
The letter continued.
I knew one day the truth would force you to choose between the family and each other.
Do not choose the family.
Choose each other.
At the bottom was one final sentence.
May you like
The traitor is not outside the Russo empire.
The traitor built it.
