Clare entered the mansion of a mafia boss with only eleven dollars in her bank account and an eviction notice folded inside her purse. Waiting for her were his three uncontrollable eight-year-old triplets—the boys who had already driven twenty-two nannies away within their first forty-eight hours. Clare had no idea that before she could change those boys, she would have to stand up to the most dangerous man in Connecticut and make a demand no one had ever dared make to his face.

They found Henry’s escape vehicle abandoned near the Connecticut River.

Inside were burner phones, fake passports, cash, and a map marked with several locations.

One location was circled in red.

A farmhouse outside Mystic.

Matteo wanted to go alone.

I refused.

“You are not coming,” he told me.

“I’m coming.”

“This is not a negotiation.”

“You said that about Rosie staying here. You were wrong then too.”

His eyes flashed.

“This is dangerous.”

“So is staying behind while people who kidnapped your wife know where my daughter sleeps.”

He stared at me.

Then he looked at Rosie, who was sitting between the triplets in the backseat of the armored SUV.

“Mom,” she whispered, “I want to go home.”

The words cut through me.

“I know, baby.”

Matteo looked at all four children.

Then made a decision.

“Dante will take them to the lake house,” he said. “No one knows that location.”

“And us?” I asked.

“Us,” Matteo said, “will find Elena.”

The farmhouse looked abandoned.

Broken fence.

Peeling white paint.

No lights.

But there was a security camera hidden under the porch roof.

Dante noticed it first.

“Someone is watching.”

Matteo raised one hand, signaling his men to spread out.

I stayed close behind him as we entered.

The inside smelled like dust and old coffee.

Then we heard a woman scream.

Matteo ran.

We found her in a locked bedroom upstairs.

She was thinner than the photograph. Her dark hair had been cut unevenly. Her face was pale and tired.

But her eyes—

her eyes were the same gray as the triplets’.

“Elena,” Matteo whispered.

The woman stared at him.

For a second, no one moved.

Then she backed away.

“No.”

Matteo stopped.

“Elena.”

“No,” she repeated, her voice shaking. “You can’t be here.”

“I came for you.”

“You came because Henry told you I was alive.”

“I have been looking for you.”

“No,” she said. “You have been looking for Victor.”

The pain on Matteo’s face was almost unbearable.

“I thought you were dead.”

“I wanted you to think I was dead.”

I looked between them.

“Why?” I asked softly.

Elena’s eyes turned to me.

“Because Victor told me Matteo would never let me leave.”

Matteo’s jaw tightened. “That is a lie.”

“Is it?” Elena demanded. “The night I found the accounts, you told me there was no leaving. You said the boys carried your name and that your enemies would use them against you.”

“I said I would protect you.”

“You said you would decide what protection meant.”

Silence filled the room.

Matteo could not deny it.

Elena’s eyes filled with tears.

“Henry helped me escape. Victor promised to get me somewhere safe. But then he took everything. My phone. My money. My identity. He said he needed me hidden until Matteo was weak enough to destroy.”

“Where is Victor?” Matteo asked.

Elena looked terrified.

“He has the boys.”

My blood ran cold.

Dante’s phone rang.

He answered.

His face went white.

“Boss.”

Matteo did not blink.

“Say it.”

“The lake house was breached.”

A video appeared on Dante’s screen.