Chapter 1 - The Nanny Who Wouldn't Run
Every Nanny Quit Within 48 Hours—Then a Single Mother Did the Impossible for the Mafia Boss’s Triplets
The first thing Arya Penelope saw when she entered the Mancini mansion was a priceless porcelain vase flying toward her head.
It struck the wall inches from her face and shattered across the marble floor.
From the top of the grand staircase, 3 identical 6-year-old boys shouted for her to leave.
Arya brushed a fragment of porcelain from her shoulder.
Then she looked up at them.
""Nice aim,"" she said. ""But if you're trying to scare me, you'll need to do better than pottery.""
The boys fell silent.
They were accustomed to nannies screaming, crying, or abandoning the house. They had never encountered one who criticized their aim.
Arya had arrived at the estate with $42 in her bank account, an eviction notice hanging over her life, and a 6-year-old daughter named Mia staying with a neighbor in Queens.
She had 48 hours to secure employment and obtain an advance payment before she and Mia risked losing their home.
The position at the Mancini estate offered an extraordinary salary.
It also came with an extraordinary reputation.
Several women had fled the household during the previous week. One had left crying, another had threatened legal action, and a third had escaped without her shoes.
The household's difficulties centered on Leo, Mateo, and Enzo Mancini, identical triplets who had driven away 5 nannies in a month.
Their father, Dante Mancini, was one of the most powerful organized-crime figures in New York.
Arya had already seen armed guards stationed around the estate.
The taxi driver who brought her there had refused to continue beyond the gates.
She understood that this was not an ordinary household.
A single command interrupted the silence in the foyer.
""Enough.""
Dante stepped from the shadow of the adjoining library.
He wore an expensive charcoal suit and carried himself with the confidence of someone accustomed to being obeyed.
The boys became quiet.
Dante regarded Arya without offering a greeting or apologizing for the broken vase.
He told her she was late.
She followed him into his office.
There, Dante opened the file supplied by the employment agency.
He already knew about her financial difficulties, her absent husband, her daughter, and the pending eviction.
He suggested that desperation could make her dangerous.
Arya answered that it made her motivated.
She needed work, and he needed someone who would not run away when his children became difficult.
Dante corrected her description of the boys' behavior.
They were not simply misbehaving.
They were grieving and angry.
Their mother had been killed 2 years earlier in a car bombing intended for Dante.
Since then, the household had been unable to restore anything resembling an ordinary routine.
The last nanny had lasted only 6 hours.
Dante proposed a test.
If Arya remained for 48 hours, he would clear all her debts.
If she left before the deadline, she would receive nothing.
Arya thought of Mia sleeping on the neighbor's sofa.
She accepted.
But she insisted on managing the children her own way, without guards stationed in the nursery or unnecessary interference.
Dante allowed the arrangement.
He gave her until Monday morning.
The first 6 hours established how difficult the job would be.
Arya entered the children's wing and immediately discovered a fishing line stretched across the playroom entrance.
She recognized the tripwire before stepping into it.
As a child, she had set similar traps for her brother.
She stepped over the line and remarked that the boys had missed a spot.
Giggles came from inside a closet.
At dinner, Maria, the household cook, handed Arya a tray of spaghetti and meatballs but refused to accompany her into the dining room.
She warned that the children sometimes bit people.
Arya carried the food in herself.
The triplets sat at the long table, watching her.
Leo, who usually led the other 2, refused to eat.
He claimed the food might be poisoned.
Dante had taught them not to eat anything they had not seen prepared.
Arya sat down, took a fork, and ate from Leo's plate.
She swallowed and announced that the food was safe, although it contained a little too much oregano.
The boys watched.
They ate very little that evening.
But they did not throw their plates.
Arya considered that progress.
At 2:00 a.m., the mansion's fire alarm sounded.
Arya hurried into the corridor and nearly collided with Dante.
He was carrying a gun and searching for his sons.
A security guard soon reported that someone had activated the alarm in the east wing.
There was no fire.
Dante lowered his weapon and ordered Arya to control the boys or leave.
He walked away before she could answer.
The incident revealed something about the household beyond ordinary tension.
Dante reacted to danger as though another attack might begin at any moment.
The following day brought more deliberate tests.
The boys glued Arya's shoes to the floor.
They hid her phone.
Enzo, the quietest of the triplets, told her that their mother would return and that Arya should leave before then.
The statement troubled her more than the pranks.
She knew that the boys' mother had died, but Enzo was still speaking as though the loss might be reversed.
By the evening of the second day, Arya was exhausted.
Her clothes were stained with paint, her hair was disordered, and she had spent much of the day responding to one prank after another.
She sat on the hallway floor with her head in her hands.
Dante found her there.
He informed her that a car was waiting to take her to the train station.
She had nearly completed the test, he said, but she looked defeated.
Arya answered that she still had 12 hours remaining.
When Dante asked why she would stay when his sons appeared to hate her, Arya disagreed with his interpretation.
The boys were lonely.
Their anger came from the loss they had endured.
Then she added that Dante appeared lonely, too.
He warned her not to assume she understood him.
But he did not order her to leave.
The turning point came the following morning, during the 47th hour.
The triplets refused to get out of bed.
They had also stopped eating.
The household staff were becoming increasingly concerned.
Arya went to the kitchen and asked for flour, milk, eggs, bacon, brown sugar, cinnamon, and chocolate chips.
She prepared pancakes and caramelized bacon.
Instead of carrying the food into the boys' room and demanding that they eat, she placed the tray outside their closed door.
She sat on the floor.
Then she began talking about the meal loudly enough for them to hear.
She described the bacon as the best she had ever made.
The pancakes contained chocolate chips.
There was also a special syrup.
If the boys refused to join her, she said, she would have to eat everything herself.
The door opened.
Enzo appeared first, interested in the chocolate chips.
Arya offered to let them join her for a picnic on the hallway floor.
One by one, the boys came out.
They sat beside her and began eating.
Soon they were laughing.
Arya wiped syrup from Mateo's nose while Leo and Enzo argued over the food.
Dante stood at the end of the corridor and watched without interrupting.
He had not heard his sons laugh like that since their mother died.
Arya had completed the 48-hour test.
May you like
Dante called her into his office.
Type ""3103"" 💬 and hit ""Like"" to see the full story
