Chapter 8 - The Woman Giovanni Buried at Twelve
Her name was Sofia Rossi.
For twenty-two years, Giovanni believed she had died in a car crash.
He remembered the funeral.
The black dress his father forced him to wear.
The closed coffin.
Vittorio standing beside the grave like stone.
Now Marco claimed she was alive.
“Where?” Gio asked.
“I don’t know.”
“That answer is becoming irritating.”
Marco handed him a file.
Inside were photographs.
A woman in Vienna.
Another in Prague.
Another outside a private clinic in France.
Same face.
Older each time.
Sofia Rossi.
Gio sat down.
Isadora watched him.
The man who frightened half the Italian coast suddenly looked like a twelve-year-old boy.
“She left me.”
Marco shook his head.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Vittorio sent her away.”
Gio stared.
“Why?”
“Carlo.”
The pattern was becoming unbearable.
Every lie led back to Carlo.
But Marco continued.
“Sofia discovered what Carlo was doing before anyone else. She tried to expose him.”
“So my father protected her by pretending she was dead?”
“Yes.”
Gio laughed bitterly.
“Apparently that was his favorite solution.”
Elena.
Marco.
Sofia.
All buried without bodies.
All alive.
Isadora sat beside him.
“My mother did the same thing.”
“That doesn’t make it better.”
“No.”
She touched his hand.
“But it means you don’t have to understand it alone.”
Gio looked at their joined hands.
Neither moved away.
Marco cleared his throat loudly.
Isadora withdrew immediately.
Gio glared at him.
Marco smiled.
“Six years missing and this is what I return to?”
“Say another word.”
“I like him,” Marco told Isadora.
“You’ve known him fifteen minutes.”
“Exactly.”
Before Gio could reply, Luca entered.
“We have a problem.”
Carlo had released documents to the press.
They appeared to show Giovanni Rossi ordering bribes, laundering money, and threatening officials.
Every major Italian network was running the story.
Isadora stared at the television.
Gio’s photograph filled the screen.
CRIMINAL EMPIRE EXPOSED.
Marco cursed.
“The documents are fake.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Gio said.
Outside, police vehicles entered the village.
Luca looked through the window.
“They found us.”
Marco grabbed Isadora’s hand.
“There’s a rear exit.”
Gio stayed where he was.
“You go.”
Isadora stared at him.
“What?”
“If I run, I look guilty.”
“You are not surrendering to evidence Carlo manufactured.”
“I have lawyers.”
“Carlo owns people.”
Gio looked at her.
“Exactly why you need to leave.”
“No.”
“Isadora.”
“No.”
Police knocked.
Gio lowered his voice.
“If you stay beside me, they will destroy your life too.”
Her eyes filled.
“You really learned nothing from your father.”
He frowned.
“He kept sending people away because he loved them.”
She stepped closer.
“And every one of them spent years alone.”
The knock became louder.
Isadora took Gio’s hand.
“I’m staying.”
For the first time in many years, Giovanni Rossi discovered something more frightening than losing his empire.
May you like
He had found someone he could not make leave.
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