0.She Told the Maid She’d Never Sleep in His Bed Again, and by Morning the Wedding Was Gone Before the Sheets Were Dry..

The sun rose over the Boston harbor, casting a cold, gray light through the windows of the Whitmore estate. It was the morning of the wedding.

Outside, a massive team of coordinators was frantically setting up hundreds of white chairs on the great lawn, arranging flowers, and preparing for the arrival of five hundred elite guests.

Inside Nathaniel’s private study, the atmosphere was a war room.

Nathaniel sat behind his mahogany desk, drinking black coffee. Across from him sat an unassuming man in a cheap suit—his private investigator, Miller.

“You asked for the accelerated report on the Sloan family’s debt holders,” Miller said, sliding a thick manila folder across the desk. “You aren't going to like it, Mr. Whitmore. They didn't just borrow from a local loan shark. They owe the O’Connor syndicate in Southie.”

Nathaniel’s jaw tightened. The O’Connors were ruthless, operating illegal gambling rings and extortion rackets throughout the city.

“How much do they owe?” Nathaniel asked coldly.

“Six point five million,” Miller replied grimly. “And the O’Connors are out of patience. They’ve given Caroline’s father until midnight tonight to clear the debt, or they start taking collateral. The rumor on the street is that Caroline’s marriage to you was their only guarantee of payment. They expect her to wire the funds from a joint account the moment the ink is dry on the marriage license.”

Nathaniel opened the folder, staring at the surveillance photos of dangerous men lingering outside the Sloan family’s townhouse. Caroline wasn't just marrying him for status. She was marrying him to save her kneecaps.

“If the wedding doesn't happen today,” Miller warned quietly, “the syndicate is going to come looking for their money. And Caroline is going to be incredibly desperate.”

“Let them come,” Nathaniel said softly, closing the folder. The cold, calculating predator inside him had fully awakened. “I want security doubled at the gates. I want a team stationed outside my mother’s room, and I want two men watching Erin at all times today.”

“Mr. Whitmore, if you cancel a wedding of this magnitude an hour before the ceremony, the media fallout will be catastrophic for Cole Meridian’s stock,” his lawyer warned through the speakerphone on the desk.

“I don't care about the stock,” Nathaniel replied, his voice dropping into a lethal, quiet register. “I care about tearing the mask off a monster in front of everyone she was trying to impress.”