The words hung in the air, thick and suffocating. Mafia. Giancarlo family. Samantha’s brother. Eliminated. Killed. Thomas felt the bottom drop out of his stomach, a dizzying spiral into a nightmare far more real and terrifying than anything he could have imagined. His affair, his stupid, selfish mistake, wasn’t just a personal failing; it was a tripwire for his own execution, and worse, Delia's.
“K-killed?” Thomas stammered, his voice thin, barely a whisper. The cold dread that had gripped him earlier now froze his veins. “Samantha… she wants us killed? For… for what? Because I broke up with her? That’s… that’s insane! She’s vindictive, yes, but this is… this is beyond anything.” His mind raced, flashing back to Samantha’s theatrical outbursts, her threats of ruining his life, but never,
