Chapter 4 – The Sister’s Betrayal

The words on the paper blurred as my mind struggled to comprehend them.

Tell your wife that her sister says hello.

“Clara?” I whispered, the name tasting like ash in my mouth. “My sister? She… she’s helping Carlo?”

Antonio stared at the note, his jaw ticking furiously. “It makes sense. Two months ago, when Carlo showed me that faked photograph of you at the airport, Clara corroborated his story. She told my men you never arrived at her house that weekend.”

“Because she was covering for him,” I realized, the betrayal twisting like a knife in my gut. “She helped Carlo frame me for the FBI leak. But why? Clara hates the mafia! She hasn’t spoken to you in ten years!”

“She hates me,” Antonio corrected bitterly. “She doesn’t hate money. Carlo must have bought her loyalty to isolate us.”

I staggered backward, sitting heavily on the edge of my grandson’s bed. My sister. The woman who had held my hand when our mother died. She had helped a monster kidnap my daughter and grandson.

“I’ll kill her,” I said. The words came out of my mouth without any conscious thought, cold and absolute.

Antonio looked at me, surprised by the venom in my voice. Then, he turned to Mark.

“Mark, we need to get you to a hospital,” Antonio said, pulling out a fresh bandage from the child’s bathroom to press against his son-in-law’s bleeding head.

“No,” Mark gasped, pushing Antonio’s hand away. “I’m a doctor, I know it’s just a concussion and a laceration. I am not going to a hospital while my wife and son are in the hands of murderers.”

“You can’t fight, Mark,” I said gently.

“I can drive,” he shot back, his eyes blazing. “I can patch you up if you get shot. I am not staying behind.”

Antonio studied the younger man. For years, Antonio had thought Mark was too soft for Elena. A pediatrician who saved lives instead of taking them. But tonight, Antonio nodded with genuine respect.

“Okay,” Antonio said. “We go to the safehouse first. We need heavier weapons and we need to drop Vanessa off.”

We helped Mark down the stairs and out into the pouring rain. Vanessa saw us coming and threw open the back door of her car. She gasped when she saw Mark covered in blood, but she didn’t ask questions. She just moved over to make room.

Antonio drove us toward an unassuming warehouse district in the South Loop.

During the drive, the silence in the car was broken only by the sound of rain and Mark’s ragged breathing.

I looked at Antonio’s profile illuminated by the streetlights.

“Antonio,” I said softly, leaning over the center console. “When you go to Pier 9… you can’t go alone. You know it’s a trap. Carlo will kill you the second you sign the assets over, and he’ll kill Elena and Leo anyway to tie up loose ends.”

“I know,” Antonio said, not taking his eyes off the road.

“Then what is the plan?”

He finally glanced at me. “The plan is to bring the Commission with me.”

I frowned. “The Commission? The five families won’t intervene in a blood dispute between brothers. You told me that years ago.”

“They will if Carlo broke the sacred rule,” Antonio explained. “The Commission strictly forbids targeting women and children who are not in the life. It’s the only reason Elena and Mark have been safe all these years. If the Bosses find out Carlo kidnapped my daughter and grandson, they will strip him of his rank and authorize a hit on him immediately.”

“But how do we prove it to them before midnight?” I asked. “Carlo will just deny he has them.”

Antonio pulled the car into a dark, narrow alleyway behind an abandoned textile factory. He parked the car and killed the engine.

“We don’t need to prove he has Elena,” Antonio said, turning around to look at the backseat. His dark eyes locked onto Vanessa. “We just need to prove Carlo is a traitor who orchestrated a coup without their permission.”

Vanessa shrank back against the leather seat. “Why are you looking at me?”

“Because,” Antonio said calmly, “you are going to call Carlo right now.”

Vanessa’s eyes went wide. “Are you insane? He’ll trace the call! He’ll know I’m with you!”

“He thinks I’m dead, Vanessa,” Antonio corrected. “He thinks his hit squad succeeded at the restaurant. You are going to call him, pretend you escaped the crossfire, and ask him for the money he promised you.”

“And while he’s talking on a recorded line, admitting to the hit on a sitting Boss,” I finished, understanding Antonio’s strategy, “we send the audio file to the head of the Commission.”

“Exactly,” Antonio nodded. He pulled a burner phone from the glove compartment and tossed it into Vanessa’s lap. “Dial.”

Vanessa stared at the phone as if it were a poisonous snake. “If Carlo finds out I helped you… he will kill my brother. He’s holding my brother hostage!”

I leaned into the backseat, looking the younger woman dead in the eye.

“Vanessa,” I said, my voice dropping to a terrifyingly calm register. “My seven-year-old grandson is sitting in a cold warehouse with a gun to his head. I do not care about your brother right now. Pick up the phone and make the call, or I will leave you locked in the trunk of this car and tell Carlo exactly where to find you.”

Vanessa swallowed hard. She looked at the blood on my dress, the absolute desperation in my eyes, and she finally understood that I was just as dangerous as my husband.

With a trembling hand, she picked up the phone and dialed.

Antonio hit record on a second device.

The phone rang twice.

“Vanessa,” Carlo’s smooth, arrogant voice answered. “I assume you’re calling to tell me my brother is dead.”

“He’s dead,” Vanessa lied beautifully, her voice shaking with fake terror. “The guards shot him in the restaurant. I ran out the back. Carlo, I did what you asked! You promised me half a million and my brother’s safety!”

“Calm down, sweetheart,” Carlo chuckled. “The money is yours. The hit was clean?”

“Yes!” Vanessa cried. “Now please, let my brother go!”

There was a long pause on the line.

Then, Carlo laughed. A dark, ugly sound.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Vanessa.”

Vanessa froze. “What? We had a deal!”

“We did,” Carlo agreed. “But unfortunately for you, my men at the restaurant just called in. They found my guards dead in the kitchen. Antonio escaped. Which means you helped him.”

Vanessa let out a choked gasp.

“And since you decided to play both sides,” Carlo continued, his voice turning to ice, “I think it’s only fair I send you a message.”

Suddenly, the sound of a struggle came through the phone, followed by a muffled shout.

“Say goodbye to your brother, Vanessa.”

A single gunshot echoed through the speaker.

Vanessa screamed, dropping the phone.

But before the call disconnected, another voice came through the line. A voice that made the blood in my veins freeze completely.

“Good shot, Carlo,” a woman’s voice praised. “Now, what do we do with the crying kid?”

It was Clara. My sister.

TITLE: The Blood At The Safehouse

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