Alessandro sat motionless in the dim blue light of his office monitors. The video timestamp read 01:14 AM. On screen, the heavy oak door of the east wing nursery creaked open without a sound.

Alessandro pulled open the closet door. Mia was sitting on the floor, holding her knees, her eyes wide with shock but miraculously silent.

"Get up. Both of you," Alessandro commanded, pulling Elena to her feet while scooping Mia up into his arm. "They came through the west perimeter. We have to secure the safe room in the east wing."

They hurried down the dark corridors as tactical gunfire echoed from the lower floors. Richard and Moretti guards were actively engaging the remaining intruders in the main foyer.

When they reached the nursery, Alessandro activated a hidden steel door concealed behind the floor-to-ceiling bookshelf. He pushed Elena, Mia, and baby Sophia inside the reinforced, soundproof panic room.

"Stay inside. Do not open this door for anyone except me or Richard," Alessandro instructed, checking his sidearm.

"Alessandro, wait!" Elena reached out, catching his wrist. Her eyes were wide with genuine terror—not just for her daughter, but for him. "Don't go down there."

Alessandro looked down at her hand on his wrist. For the first time in three years, since Isabella’s death, he felt a jolt of raw human connection. He placed his hand over hers.