Chapter 6

Chapter 6

That night, the Leonardo mansion was shrouded in suffocating silence. After spending the entire day suppressing her turbulent emotions, Ameena felt utterly exhausted. Her role as a wet nurse drained more of her energy than she had ever imagined. Her abundant milk production often made her stomach growl in the middle of the night, as though her body were constantly processing nutrients for her employer's baby.

Ameena glanced at the wall clock, which already showed two in the morning. With light footsteps, she left her room and headed toward the kitchen. A mansion this large had a kitchen even more spacious than the apartment where she lived. She only wanted to cook some instant noodles, just enough to fill her stomach so she could sleep peacefully.

While waiting for the water to boil on the stove, her ears caught a strange whizzing sound from outside the mansion walls.

Boom!

A loud explosion followed by the sound of shattering glass startled Ameena so badly that she nearly dropped her pot.

Before she could process what was happening, a barrage of automatic gunfire brutally shattered the silence of the night.

"Help..." Ameena whispered in fear.

She immediately turned off the stove, crouched behind the thick kitchen counter, and covered both ears with her trembling palms. Her heart pounded as though it were about to leap out of her chest.

"Hey, Damien! Come out, you coward! You think you can disturb our peace and get away with it?"

The heavy, hate-filled voice of an unfamiliar man echoed from the front yard, reverberating throughout the mansion.

Ameena peeked through a gap in the kitchen cabinet. She saw searchlights sweeping across the grounds. In the distance, she saw Damien Leonardo—who had still looked cold that afternoon—now standing amid a rain of bullets, a long-barreled rifle in his hands. A dozen of his guards moved tactically, returning fire against a group of men dressed in black who had infiltrated the mansion grounds.

They were a syndicate of illegal arms smugglers who often clashed with the Leonardo family.

"Looks like you're pretty strong after all, huh?" the syndicate leader taunted with a sinister laugh. "I thought you'd rot to death in that forest a few days ago after we riddled your body with hot lead!"

Damien wasted no time with words. His eyes burned with a dark murderous aura. He moved like a shadow, leaping behind a concrete pillar before firing with deadly precision.

Bang!

The hot bullet struck his opponent's vital area. The man collapsed to the ground, lifeless.

Ameena, who had witnessed it from a distance, let out a muffled scream. She could not bear to see blood splattering across the garden grass. Without caring about her noodles, she rose and ran as fast as she could toward the west wing, where the nursery was located. Her breath came in ragged gasps, tears of fear streaming down her cheeks. She had to make sure the baby was safe.

She burst into the nursery, locked the door tightly, and hugged the baby's crib as though it were her protective shield. She curled up on the floor, continuously praying for Alby's safety at home and for the baby, who was now sleeping peacefully in front of her.

Not long afterward, the sounds of battle subsided. An eerie silence once again enveloped the mansion. The sound of heavy bootsteps echoed closer along the corridor.

Tap, tap, tap.

The nursery door was thrown open violently.

Damien entered, breathing heavily. His shirt was torn in several places, and fresh blood splatters stained his grim face. He looked like a demon who had just emerged from hell.

Seeing Ameena curled up on the floor, Damien immediately lunged forward. He grabbed Ameena by the neck and lifted her body until her feet barely touched the floor. His grip was incredibly strong, making it difficult for Ameena to breathe.

"So you witnessed it?" Damien said, his face only inches away from Ameena's terrified one. "Good that you saw it. If you dare seduce me again or try to do anything that puts my son in danger, your fate will be the same as the trash lying outside!"

Damien's eyes glinted red with overflowing rage. He tightened his grip even further, making Ameena feel as though her life were hanging by a thread.

However, something inside Ameena exploded. Perhaps it was a mother's instinct to survive, or perhaps it was the accumulated pain of being treated like a lowly woman. Ameena stopped crying.

With the last bit of strength she possessed, she shoved Damien's chest as hard as she could, striking precisely where his opponent's bullet had grazed him earlier.

"Let me go!" Ameena shouted, her voice hoarse yet loud. She did not care if this man could kill her that very second.

Damien was startled by the sudden push and staggered one step backward.

Ameena stood upright, her chest rising and falling heavily. She stared directly into Damien's eyes, ignoring the fear that still lingered deep within her heart.

"Listen, Mr. Damien!" Ameena shouted, her breathing ragged. "I am not a seductress! I came to this horrible place only because I need money to pay for my dying child's hospital expenses! I was forced to leave my own flesh and blood behind, to be separated from him just so I could give him a chance to live! So don't ever accuse me with such a cheap accusation, because I have absolutely no intention whatsoever of seducing a monster like you!"

Damien was stunned.

He stood completely motionless.

Ameena's words struck his consciousness harder than the bullet that had pierced his chest earlier.

Thump.

Damien's eyes widened. He stared at Ameena, who was now trembling not from fear, but from genuine anger. The words "a child lying helpless in the hospital" seemed to silence every prejudice he had built in his mind all this time.

Amid the oppressive silence that followed the gunshots, Ameena's words continued to echo through Damien's mind like a recording that refused to stop.

The man remained silent, his hard jaw slowly relaxing while his sharp gaze gradually shifted into an expression that was difficult to decipher. It felt as though something inside his chest had cracked—a fortress of prejudice he had built so firmly was now beginning to crumble little by little.

Damien looked at Ameena's still-trembling hands, then at the woman's face, marked by exhaustion and sincerity.

For the first time, the mafia king found no hatred in the eyes of the woman standing before him, but rather very real suffering.

And even more surprisingly, Damien realized that he was not angry at being shouted at.

Instead, he felt... shaken.

Silence.

Only the sound of their heavy breathing filled the room. Damien remained frozen, his lips slightly parted as though he wanted to say something, but no words were able to escape them.

His heart pounded hard, this time not from anger or desire, but from a shock that had just awakened him from a long nightmare.

"This fat woman dared to call me a monster?" Damien thought.

To be continued.