THE SECRET THE BOYS WERE HIDING

Weeks became months.

Serena stayed.

The quadruplets stopped driving nannies away.

The house became louder.

Messier.

Warmer.

And Victor couldn't understand why.

One evening, he discovered the answer.

He was walking past the playroom when he heard Tommy speaking.

That alone made him stop.

Tommy almost never talked.

Victor quietly opened the door.

Inside, the four boys sat around Serena.

A photo album rested in her lap.

Their late mother's photo album.

The one nobody had touched since her funeral.

"Tell us about Mom again," Tommy whispered.

Serena smiled gently.

"Which story?"

"The dancing one."

Victor froze.

His wife, Isabella, had loved dancing.

The boys had been too young to remember most of it.

But Serena had spent months collecting stories from old family friends, staff members, and relatives.

She was giving the boys back pieces of their mother.

Pieces grief had stolen.

Marco suddenly spoke.

"We weren't trying to make nannies quit."

Serena looked surprised.

"Then why did you?"

The boys lowered their heads.

Finally Nico answered.

"Because every nanny left."

The room became silent.

Tommy's eyes filled with tears.

"Everyone leaves."

Victor felt something break inside his chest.

The chaos.

The destruction.

The endless misbehavior.

It had never been about anger.

It was fear.

Four little boys trying to leave first before someone else abandoned them again.

Victor quietly closed the door.

Then sat alone in his office for nearly an hour.

Thinking.

Remembering.

Regretting.