Chapter 5 - The Key My Mother Died Protecting
The Venturi estate sat behind iron gates north of the city, surrounded by bare winter trees and enough security cameras to watch a small country.
I hated it immediately.
Maybe because my mother had spent part of her life there.
Maybe because she had spent the rest of it trying to escape.
Dominic sat beside me in the SUV.
My father sat across from us.
Nobody spoke.
Twenty minutes earlier Dominic had argued that bringing me there was reckless.
I agreed.
Then I came anyway.
“You can still turn around,” Dominic said.
“No.”
“Eliza.”
“No.”
He exhaled.
“You’re stubborn.”
“My mother apparently ran away from an organized-crime dynasty while pregnant. Genetics.”
Gabriel smiled faintly.
I glared at him until it disappeared.
I wasn’t ready to forgive him.
Maybe I never would be.
The gates opened.
Men in dark coats watched us drive toward a massive stone mansion.
At the entrance waited a woman in her late fifties wearing a charcoal suit.
Gabriel went rigid.
“Who is that?”
I whispered.
“Your aunt.”
I stared.
“My mother had a sister?”
“Younger.”
“She’s alive too?”
Gabriel looked guilty.
That was enough.
“Fantastic. Anyone else coming back from the dead today?”
Dominic touched my hand briefly.
The gesture grounded me more than I wanted to admit.
The woman descended the steps.
Her eyes landed on me.
She looked nothing like my mother.
Yet something in her expression felt familiar.
“Isabella.”
I stiffened.
“My name is Eliza.”
Emotion crossed her face.
“Yes.”
She looked at Gabriel.
“You should never have brought her.”
Gabriel replied, “They found her.”
The woman’s gaze moved to Dominic.
“And you.”
Dominic stepped out.
“Lucia.”
So they knew each other.
Of course.
Apparently everyone in Chicago knew my history except me.
I exited.
Lucia examined my face.
“You have her eyes.”
“I’ve heard.”
“I am Lucia Venturi.”
“My aunt.”
“Yes.”
“You knew where I was.”
Silence.
“That answers that.”
Lucia’s composure cracked.
“Eliza—”
“Not today.”
I walked toward the mansion.
Dominic followed immediately.
Inside, everything screamed old money.
Marble floors.
Oil portraits.
Gold-framed mirrors.
The kind of wealth my mother had traded for a tiny rented apartment and grocery coupons.
For me.
Suddenly I loved her more than ever.
An elderly man waited in a library.
Salvatore Venturi was smaller than I expected.
Illness had reduced him to a thin body beneath blankets.
But the eyes remained sharp.
The moment he saw me, tears formed.
“Isabella.”
I stopped five feet away.
“Eliza.”
His lips trembled.
“You look exactly like her.”
“So everyone keeps telling me.”
He gestured to a chair.
I remained standing.
“I’ve waited sixteen years.”
“That’s interesting. I spent sixteen years thinking I had no family.”
Lucia looked away.
Salvatore’s expression tightened.
“Your father took you.”
“He protected me.”
“He stole you.”
“He was my father.”
“He was an employee.”
Gabriel moved forward.
Dominic blocked him.
I stared at my grandfather.
“My mother loved him.”
“She was confused.”
“No.”
The word surprised even me.
“She left all this.”
I spread my arms toward the mansion.
“For him.”
Salvatore looked toward the fire.
“She destroyed our family.”
“You did that yourself.”
Silence.
Dominic’s mouth almost twitched.
Salvatore’s eyes returned to me.
“You have her courage.”
“You mean disobedience?”
His face darkened.
I understood my mother immediately.
“What do you want from me?”
“The key.”
There it was.
“No.”
His fingers tightened.
“It belongs to this family.”
“My mother left it to me.”
“Your mother stole something that was mine.”
“Then explain what it opens.”
Salvatore stared.
My father spoke.
“A deposit box at Great Lakes Continental.”
Lucia inhaled sharply.
Salvatore’s face twisted with rage.
“You.”
He pointed at Gabriel.
“You were supposed to be dead.”
“I tried.”
“That can still be arranged.”
Dominic took one step forward.
The room changed.
“You will not threaten anyone while Eliza is here.”
Salvatore laughed weakly.
“Romano.”
“Salvatore.”
“Still pretending you’re different from me?”
Dominic’s face became cold.
“I stopped pretending years ago.”
I looked at him.
There was something in his tone I didn’t understand.
Salvatore noticed.
“You don’t know him, girl.”
“I barely know any of you.”
“You think Romano rescued you?”
My pulse quickened.
Dominic didn’t move.
Salvatore smiled.
“Ask him why he owns Obsidian.”
I looked at Dominic.
“It’s a nightclub.”
“It was Isabella’s.”
Everything went silent.
“What?”
“Your mother secretly financed it before she ran.”
Dominic spoke.
“She gave the property to my father in exchange for protection.”
“And your father betrayed her,” Salvatore said.
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
I turned.
“Is that true?”
“Yes.”
The answer hurt more because he didn’t hide it.
“My father told Salvatore where they were living.”
Gabriel closed his eyes.
“My mother died because of your father?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did he tell them?”
“Yes.”
I backed away.
Dominic reached toward me.
I flinched.
His hand dropped.
“You knew?”
“I learned years later.”
“And you never told me.”
“I met you yesterday.”
“You recognized me yesterday.”
“Yes.”
“Did you bring me to the penthouse because you felt guilty?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“Because someone drugged you.”
“That isn’t the whole answer.”
His silence told me everything.
I walked away.
“Eliza.”
“Don’t.”
I needed air.
Lucia guided me into an adjoining conservatory before Dominic could follow.
For several minutes, I stared through glass walls at snow covering the gardens.
Lucia stood behind me.
“My sister loved this room.”
I said nothing.
“She grew orchids.”
“My mother killed every houseplant we ever owned.”
Lucia laughed unexpectedly.
It sounded almost like my mother.
That broke me.
Tears came before I could stop them.
“I had family.”
Lucia’s smile disappeared.
“Yes.”
“And none of you came.”
“We thought distance protected you.”
“You sound like my father.”
“We were wrong.”
At least she admitted it.
I wiped my face.
“Tell me what happened to my mother.”
Lucia’s hands trembled.
“Isabella found proof that our father had manipulated conflicts between families for years.”
“The ledger.”
“Yes.”
“She wanted to expose him.”
“She wanted the violence to end.”
“Did your father kill her?”
Lucia closed her eyes.
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I was there the night she died.”
I stopped breathing.
Lucia looked at me.
“She came back.”
“What?”
“Your mother returned here after nine years.”
“Why?”
“For you.”
Lucia’s voice broke.
“Someone had learned she had a daughter.”
My heart pounded.
“She negotiated with our father. She offered him something in exchange for leaving you alone.”
“The ledger?”
“No.”
“What?”
Lucia whispered, “Her inheritance.”
I stared.
“How much?”
“Everything.”
“And he agreed?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did she die?”
Lucia began crying.
“Her car went off the road that night.”
“Accident?”
“That’s what the report said.”
“You don’t believe it.”
“No.”
“Who did it?”
“I never knew.”
A shadow appeared behind the glass door.
Dominic.
He had heard enough.
I stepped toward him.
“Did your father?”
His face went pale.
“I don’t know.”
“That isn’t good enough.”
“No.”
For once, Dominic Romano looked powerless.
“It isn’t.”
My phone buzzed.
A bank notification.
Except I didn’t bank with Great Lakes Continental.
I opened the message.
PRIVATE VAULT ACCESS ATTEMPT DETECTED. BOX 17426.
Someone was trying to open my mother’s box.
Then another message appeared.
A photograph.
Maya.
Sitting in the back seat of a car.
Terrified.
Under it:
BRING THE KEY TO GREAT LAKES CONTINENTAL. COME ALONE.
I looked up at Dominic.
His face turned deadly.
“No.”
I grabbed my coat.
“They have Maya.”
“Eliza—”
“I’m going.”
“You will not go alone.”
“The message says—”
“I don’t care what the message says.”
I stepped closer.
“They’ll hurt her.”
Dominic looked into my eyes.
Then something changed.
Not the commanding man.
Not the Mafia boss.
The man underneath.
“We’ll get her back.”
“How?”
His voice became frighteningly calm.
May you like
“By making them believe they’ve finally won.”
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