The Viper Donna：Stepmother’s Mafia Justice Chapter 06
The 4 AM Lockdown
At three fifty-five a.m., I put on a Kevlar vest over my nightgown.
At three fifty-eight, I walked to the main security panel in the east corridor.
At four a.m. sharp, I pulled the alarm.
The alarm screamed through the mansion. Red emergency lights flashed in every hall.
It was the kind of alarm that meant one thing. Get up. Get out. Run.
I stood in the main hall with my arms crossed and waited.
Elena came first, stumbling down the stairs in a silk nightgown, no makeup, hair wild. Her face was white. Pure terror.
“WHAT’S HAPPENING? ARE WE UNDER ATTACK?”
Nonna came next, gripping the banister. Her hand shook on her cane. Two bodyguards flanked her, guns drawn, scanning for threats.
The staff poured in from every direction—maids in bathrobes, cooks still wiping sleep from their eyes, drivers half-dressed.
Marco ran out crying, hiding behind his mother.
I waited until everyone was there.
Then I shut off the alarm.
Everyone stared at me.
“Good morning,” I said.
Elena’s terror turned to fury in half a second. “WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?”
“This was a drill.” I paced in front of them, slow, hands behind my back. “The Moretti family has real enemies. People outside these gates would love to put bullets in all of us. And what did I just learn? This household needs four full minutes to move. Four minutes means dead.”
“This is insane!” Elena started.
“From now on,” I continued, “when I pull that alarm, everyone moves. No questions. Move fast.”
Nonna slammed her cane against the marble floor. “You have no authority to—”
“I have every authority. I am the Donna of this house. And since none of you seem to respect that during daylight hours, we’re going to practice in the dark.”
I pointed at the staff. “Kitchen. Now. Full breakfast for ten. You have twenty minutes.”
Nobody moved.
I pulled an unloaded shotgun from behind the hallway table. They did not know it was unloaded. I racked it once. The sound carried through the hall.
“Eighteen minutes.”
They ran.
Elena stood shaking, fists clenched. “Dominic will hear about this.”
“Tell him. Tell him his wife runs 4 a.m. drills and his household can’t even make breakfast under pressure. See if he gets angry at me or at you.”
She had nothing.
Nonna lowered herself into a hallway chair, cane across her knees.
She did not speak. But she understood something now.
She was beginning to understand me.
Breakfast was served in nineteen minutes. Eggs. Toast. Coffee. Nothing fancy, but hot and on time.
I made everyone sit, including the guards, maids, Elena, Nonna, and Marco.
Leo and Mia sat on either side of me.
Leo ate steadily. For the first time since I met him, his hands did not shake.
Mia leaned against my arm, still half asleep, a piece of toast clutched in her small fist.
When breakfast was done, I stood.
“This drill happens again. Random nights. Random times. Until this household can handle a crisis. Until every person under this roof earns the Moretti name.”
I set the shotgun on the table.
“Dismissed.”
People scattered. Elena stormed upstairs without a word. Nonna stayed in her chair, watching me.
“You are either very brave,” she said quietly, “or very stupid.”
“I’m both,” I said. “That’s what makes me dangerous.”
She almost smiled. Almost.
I took Mia’s hand and walked her back to bed. Tucked her in. Kissed her forehead.
“Scary wake-up,” Mia mumbled, already drifting off.
“I know, baby. Go back to sleep.”
“Will you stay?”
“Always.”
She fell asleep within seconds.
I sat on the edge of her bed in the dark, still wearing the Kevlar vest, still wide awake.
Three weeks in this house, and I had already broken their routine and their chain of command.
Now it was time to break their wallets.
Because tomorrow, I was going through Elena’s books. Every account. Every transaction. Every dollar she’d stolen from Dominic’s children.
And when I found what I was looking for—and I would find it—there would be no alarm loud enough to save her.
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