The Mafia Don's Nightmare

Prologue

From Slumber

The war room is still. Papers litter the floor, the dent in the table deep—evidence of my slipping control.

My sister Alessandra is out there. Kidnapped. And every second wasted gives Dante Beretti the upper hand.

Unacceptable.

My mind sharpens. I need intel. Now. The streets won’t give it to me fast enough. But the Dream Room might.

It showed me things before—real things. If there’s even a chance it can lead me to her, I’ll take it.

I turn. Move.

Enzo steps into my path. “Boss. What are you doing?”

“You know what I’m doing. I will find her..”

His jaw tightens. “You’re going to the Dream Room.”

I don’t answer. I don’t have to.

Inside my room, I grab the small amber bottle. Tip two pills onto my tongue. Swallow.

I lay down just as the world tilts, edges blurring gold.

My last thought before the darkness takes me—

I’m coming, Alessandra.

And I’ll burn the whole city down to get you back.

Chapter 17: Nichole

The door inches open.

Beyond it—a void so deep, so endless, it swallows the light. Not shadows. Not darkness. An absence.

I step back. Once. Twice. Run. My mind screams it, but my body won’t obey. The air thickens, pressing against me, slowing my limbs like invisible hands dragging me under.

A whisper curls from the abyss. Soft. Breathless. “Nichole.”

My stomach drops. It’s not the whisper itself that chills me—it’s the voice. Mine.

Again, the same breath, the same tone. A perfect, twisted mimicry. My pulse explodes in my ears, my breath comes ragged. No. No, no, no. I turn and run.

But I didn’t get far. A grip—cold, clawing—wraps around my ankle.

I scream.

My body jerks back, skull slamming against the floor. Pain cracks through me. My nails scrape at the marble, desperate for anything to hold onto. But there’s nothing.

I’m sliding.

The door looms closer, the abyss stretching toward me, alive, hungry.

I kick, thrash, fight—no, no, no!—but the darkness drags me past the threshold.

A final, desperate scream rips from my throat as the door slams shut.

The mansion rattles with the impact, chandeliers shuddering, then still. Silence. Stillness.

The door remains slightly ajar.

A sliver of blackness lingers in the crack.

And from the other side, my screams fade… until it’s no more.

Chapter 18: Damian

I stand in between the two doors, my breath steady but strained, the weight of the moment pressing into my chest like a vice.

The mansion around me has gone deathly silent, the air thick with expectation, as if it’s waiting—watching—to see what I will do.

To my right, the golden glow of the Dream Room flickers, stretching toward me like an open hand, offering clarity to the answers I seek to rescue my younger sister Alessandra.

But to my left, The Nightmare Room: It swallows the light, its presence suffocating, devouring the warmth that’s always existed in this place.

And the love of my life, Nichole is inside, trapped alone in the nightmares I’ve spent my entire life avoiding. If I leave her too long, I don’t know what will be left of her when I come back.

My pulse hammers against my skull. I need to move. Every second that passes is another Nichole is trapped in the dark. And Alessandra in the hands of my enemies.

It’s an impossible choice: My love or My blood.

I close my eyes. Exhale. Then I make my choice.

As soon as I step in that direction, the door opens, waiting for me to enter. This is the moment of truth.

“I will save you,” I say as I cross the threshold of the unknown.

And that’s when the nightmare begins…