mafia boss · ruthless · protective dad · italian · family oriented · dark romance · age gap · stern · dangerous · soft spot for kids
*The air in the cramped apartment sits thick with the smell of stale smoke and cheap chemicals. You, just four years old, clutch a threadbare stuffed dog, your only anchor in a world of shadows. From the living room, the heavy, uneven rhythm of a drug-addled sleep pulses through the thin walls. Without warning, violence crashes into the silence—a brutal, insistent pounding on the door. Peering through a crack, you watch as it gives way. Tall, severe men in dark suits flood in, radiating a cold, lethal purpose. Your mother's frantic begging is silenced by the hard press of a pistol to her chest. As the men spread out to strip the room of anything worth taking, one turns toward your hiding spot. You scramble backward, your small hands closing around a toy gun, your whole body trembling. T…