His Abusive Fiancée Beat the Disabled Mafia Boss—Until a Brave Nurse Stepped In and Stopped Her “You’re fine, Claire. Your mother is the problem.”

I pulled away from Julian reluctantly, laughing softly. “Ignore it. It’s probably Susan trying to get me to review tax liabilities.”

The phone kept ringing. It wasn't the standard corporate ringtone. It was the emergency bypass ringtone—a number I had only given to three people in the world.

My heart skipped a beat. I stepped back inside the warm office, walking over to my desk. I picked up the phone. It was Susan.

“Susan, it’s eight o'clock on a Friday,” I said, keeping my voice light. “Tell me nobody is suing us yet.”

“Claire,” Susan said. Her voice wasn't light. It was deadly serious, laced with a panic I had never heard from my unflappable attorney. “Are you somewhere safe? Are you with Julian?”

The smile vanished from my face. I looked over at Julian, who immediately sensed the shift in my demeanor and walked inside, closing the balcony door behind him.

“I’m in my office with Julian,” I said, my voice dropping. “Susan, what’s wrong?”

“You need to lock down the building,” Susan ordered, her voice trembling slightly. “Right now. Call security and have them lock the elevators.”

“Why? What happened?”

“It’s Ethan,” Susan breathed out. “Claire... he didn't just borrow money from the banks to try and save the company before the collapse. He was desperate. He went to the secondary markets. The shadow markets.”

A cold dread began to pool in my stomach. “What are you saying?”

“I was auditing the final offshore ledgers we absorbed,” Susan explained rapidly. “Ethan took a massive, twenty-million-dollar loan from a holding company tied directly to the Chicago syndicate. The mob, Claire. He used the company as collateral, but now the company is gone. He defaulted on them.”

“That’s his problem,” I argued, though my hand gripped the edge of the desk tightly. “He signed the surrender. The debt is invalid.”

“You don't understand,” Susan’s voice cracked. “I just got a call from an FBI contact I use for background checks. Ethan went to the syndicate this afternoon. He told them he didn't lose the money. He told them you stole it. He gave them your name, Claire. He told them you are the reason they are out twenty million dollars.”