Part 2: His fiancée told the pregnant daughter that the mafia boss was ashamed of her, completely unaware that he had already hidden a baby crib in his mansion a month earlier.

"Hold the line!" Luca roared into the phone, sprinted toward the door, leaving Vanessa screaming behind him. "Get the armored team out of the garage! Now!"

Back at Maple Street, the quiet suburban neighborhood was transformed into a combat zone. High-caliber rounds chewed through the brick walls of the old house, shattering windows and showering the interior in glass shards.

Emily crouched in the crawlspace beneath the kitchen pantry, her arms tightly locked around her stomach, breathing in shallow, terrified gasps. The house shook with every grenade blast. Outside, the syndicate guards Luca had assigned were returning heavy fire, but the attackers were heavily armed, moving with military precision.

Antonio Bellini had sent his best hit squad. Knowing Vanessa was captured, the old mafia patriarch was attempting to wipe out Luca’s only bloodline to force a truce or seize leverage.

"Clear the ground floor!" an unfamiliar voice barked in Italian through the shattered living room window. Heavy combat boots crunched across broken glass.

Emily squeezed her eyes shut, whispering to her unborn child, *Please be okay. Hold on, baby, please hold on.*

Suddenly, the front yard erupted into an apocalyptic storm of gunfire.

Tires screeched as three massive black armored trucks plowed directly through the front yard, crushing the attackers' sedans like tin cans. Luca’s reinforcements had arrived.

Above the deafening roar of automatic weapons, a terrifying, familiar voice cut through the darkness.

"Kill every single one of them," Luca commanded over the tactical radio. "No prisoners."

Within three minutes, the firefight ceased. The only sound remaining was the hiss of punctured radiators and the steady pouring rain.

The pantry door flew open. Emily flinched, shielding her head, but instead of a gunman, large, strong arms wrapped around her, lifting her effortlessly from the floor.

"I’ve got you," Luca breathed, pulling her against his chest. His heavy overcoat smelled of cordite and rain, but his grip was the safest place on earth. "I’ve got you, Emily. You’re safe."