Chapter 7-1
Enzo’s POV
Sophie was quiet for most of the drive.
She sat in the passenger seat with her hands folded in her lap, her cheek still faintly pink. Every few minutes she would sniffle, or dab at her eyes with a tissue.
My grip tightened on the steering wheel.
Jenna had lost her mind. Attacking Sophie in public, causing a scene, dragging the Family name through the mud, and for what?
Because Aurora couldn’t control her jealousy?
I’d deal with my sister later.
The house I’d bought for Sophie sat on the outskirts of the city, far from the Family’s territory, where no one would recognize her. It wasn’t extravagant, but it was safe. No cameras, no gossip, no eyes that reported back to the Family.
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< Chapter 7-1
I pulled into the driveway and cut the engine.
“I’m sorry,” Sophie whispered. “I’ve caused so much
trouble for you.”
“It’s not your fault.”
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“Your wife hates me. Your sister attacked me.” Her voice trembled. “Maybe I should just disappear. Take Ethan and go somewhere far away.”
“No,” I said quickly. “You’re not going anywhere. I told you I’d protect you, and I meant it.”
She looked at me with grateful eyes. The same eyes that had haunted me for years after my grandfather tore us
apart.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
Sophie and I had been inseparable once, convinced we’d be together forever.
Then my grandfather discovered our relationship and decided she wasn’t worthy of the future Don of the Grimson Family.
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A street girl with no bloodline, no value at the negotiating table. He’d put her on a plane out of the country, cut off all contact, and by the time I tracked her down years later, she’d already married someone else.
A monster, as it turned out.
Her ex-husband had been wealthy, charming, and utterly cruel behind closed doors. Sophie had endured years of abuse before she finally escaped with her son.
She’d returned to the city months ago with nothing but a suitcase and a little boy.
Ethan wasn’t mine. He was the product of her nightmare marriage. But when Sophie begged me to let people believe otherwise, to give her son the protection of the Crimson name, the kind of shield that made even the police think twice, I couldn’t refuse.
I owed her that.
She’d saved my life once. When a rival ambushed me outside a warehouse, she had thrown herself between me and the blade meant for my ribs. We were barely
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eighteen. The scar on her shoulder was proof of what
she’d sacrificed for me.
This was the least I could do.
“Please,” Sophie said now, her hand finding mine. “Just a little longer. If my ex finds out where we are…”
“He won’t.” I squeezed her hand once before releasing it. “I’ll handle everything. Just focus on taking care of yourself and the boy.”
Relief softened her features. “Thank you, Enzo. I don’t
know what I’d do without you.”
I nodded, then checked my phone. Three missed calls from my mother.
Fantastic.
My mother was waiting in the drawing room when I arrived at the family estate.
She stood by the window with her back to me, but I could tell from her posture that Jenna had already filled her head with nonsense.
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My sister had always been dramatic, and apparently my mother was determined to match her energy tonight.
“Mother…”
“Sit down.”
I didn’t sit. “If this is about what happened at the mall, Jenna overreacted. Sophie wasn’t doing anything wrong.”
She turned around, her brows knitted in displeasure.
“Jenna overreacted?” she repeated slowly. “Your sister slapped your mistress in public, and you think she’s the problem?”
“Sophie isn’t my mistress.”
“Then what is she?” My mother advanced toward me. “Because from where I’m standing, it looks like you’ve been keeping another woman while your Donna sits alone in a hospital bed.”
I exhaled. “You don’t understand the situation.”
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< Chapter 7-1
“Then explain it to me.”
I couldn’t. The truth about Ethan, about Sophie’s past. It wasn’t my secret to share.
And frankly, I didn’t owe anyone an explanation. I was the Don of this Family. My word was final in the boardroom, on the streets, and in my own house.
“It doesn’t concern you,” I said flatly.
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