For two exhausting hours, the Mafia boss’s triplets screamed while nannies, doctors, and expensive specialists tried everything. Nothing worked. Then four-year-old Sophie, the maid’s quiet daughter, wandered into the nursery carrying an old cloth doll. Within minutes, all three children became completely silent. Everyone assumed Sophie had somehow comforted them—until she tilted the doll in her lap. Click. The strange sound made her face change instantly. What she discovered next revealed why the triplets had really been crying.

Elena froze, her hand hovering just inches above the critical ventilation controls.

I raised my weapon and aimed it directly at her trembling back.

"Turn around slowly, Elena," I ordered, my voice turning to pure ice.

She turned to face me, tears streaming rapidly down her pale cheeks.

"I didn't want to do it, Mr. Moretti," she sobbed uncontrollably.

"Victor's men found my husband in the city two weeks ago and took him hostage."

She explained that Victor had forced her to map out the estate's blind spots and security protocols.

"They told me if I didn't help them, they would send my husband back in pieces," she cried.

"You betrayed my family to save your own," I stated coldly.

"I tried to warn you without getting my husband killed!" she pleaded, gesturing toward her daughter.

"I purposely gave the clicking doll to Sophie, hoping you would investigate the noise."

She had taken a massive risk to save my children, but her actions had still brought the enemy to my door.

Before I could decide her fate, the main monitor on the console abruptly switched on.

Victor's scarred, grinning face filled the large screen.

He was sitting comfortably in my private study, drinking from my expensive whiskey collection.

"It seems you found your way into the little metal box, Adrien," Victor mocked.

"You cannot breach this room, Victor, and the police will eventually notice the signal jam," I replied confidently.

Victor merely laughed, a dry, rasping sound that chilled my blood.

"I don't need to breach the door to kill you, my old friend," he smiled.

He held up a small remote control and pressed a red button.

A loud mechanical grinding noise echoed through the walls of the panic room.

I looked up at the ceiling as the heavy steel ventilation grates snapped shut.

"I just sealed your oxygen supply," Victor announced cheerfully.

When my newborn 'passed away,' my mother-in-law leaned in and said

My Husband Left Me Alone in My Car While I Was in Labor

“You’re Dead When We Get Home,” He Snapped

"You have roughly thirty minutes of breathable air before you all peacefully fall asleep forever."

The screen went black, leaving us trapped in a slowly suffocating tomb.

Chapter 5 - The Cost of Loyalty