NANNY FOR THE MAFIA BOSS

CHAPTER 7: THE RING AND THE WARNING Episode

For 3 weeks after the wedding, the world was quiet.

Dangerous kind of quiet.

No threats. No black SUVs. No phone calls at 3AM.

Just 8PM bath time. Just park on Sundays. Just me, Vince, Ria, and Ella learning how to be a family without flinching every time the door opened.

I started believing we might actually get it.

Vince put the ring on me the morning after the courthouse. Not the one from the judge. This one was old. Platinum. His mother’s.

“It’s not fancy,” he said, sliding it on. “But it stayed.”

I kissed him and didn’t let go for a long time.

Ria made us a new drawing for the fridge. The 4 Of Us + Forever. She added a ring on my stick figure’s finger and glitter everywhere.

Rule number 4 went up next to the others in pink marker:

4. No checking the cameras after 9PM. We’re safe. We’re home.

I wanted to believe it.

Then the flowers came.

White lilies. My favorite. Delivered to the door at 7:58 PM. Right before bath time.

No card.

Vince saw them and his whole body went still.

“Who sent these?” I asked.

“Throw them out,” he said. Too fast. “All of them.”

“Vince”

“Now, Ava.”

I did. Into the trash in the garage. My hands were shaking.

That night I couldn’t sleep. Ella was fussy. Ria had a nightmare and crawled into our bed.

Vince lay awake, staring at the ceiling, his thumb rubbing circles on my hand.

At 2:13 AM my phone lit up on the nightstand.

Unknown number.

One photo.

It was us. From today.

At the park.

Ria on the swings, me pushing her, Ella in the carrier, Vince watching from the bench with his sunglasses on.

And circled in red, in the corner of the photo: Two guys in a black SUV. Across the street.

Our “security.”

Under the photo, text:

“Rule number 4 was cute. Cute gets people killed.

We see you. Every Sunday. Every 8PM.

Give us Vince, or we take the girls.

You have 48 hours.”

My breath caught.

Vince was already sitting up. He saw my screen.

“Family,” he whispered.

The Cross family. His rivals.

He looked at me. Ria is asleep between us. Ella in the cot.

For the first time since the wedding, the mafia boss mask was back. Cold. Calculating. Scared.

“They found us,” he said.

I nodded, tears already falling. “What do we do?”

Vince stood up. Walked to the safe in his closet. I opened it.

Pulled out a gun. And a passport.

Mine. With my maiden name.

And one for Ria. And one for Ella.

“Pack a bag,” he said quietly. “Just one. No one can know.”

“Where are we going?”

“Not we,” he said. His voice broke. “You. You and the girls. Tonight.”

I stared at him. “I’m not leaving you.”

“Ava,” he said, and for once he wasn’t Vince the boss. He was just a man terrified of losing everything. “If I stay, they’ll use you to get to me. If you go, I can end this.”

Ria stirred. “Mama? Why is Daddy packing?”

I looked at the photo on my phone again. The SUV. The red circle.

48 hours.

My wedding ring felt heavy on my finger.

Forever, we said.