Chapter 7 - The Contract
The gunshot echoed through the massive warehouse.
Claire flinched, throwing her hands over her face.
But the pain never came.
She opened her eyes to see Nathaniel standing in front of her.
He held his shoulder, blood quickly staining his white dress shirt.
“Nathaniel.”
Claire screamed, dropping to her knees to catch him as he stumbled.
Evelyn looked horrified by what she had just done.
Her hands shook wildly as the gun clattered to the concrete floor.
“I didn't mean to shoot you.”
Evelyn backed away into the shadows.
“You were supposed to move.”
Before Evelyn could run, police sirens wailed in the distance.
Nathaniel had called the cops before he arrived.
Evelyn turned and sprinted toward the back exit, abandoning Maya.
Claire rushed forward and scooped her crying daughter into her arms.
“I have got you, baby.”
She held Maya tightly while pressing her jacket against Nathaniel’s bleeding shoulder.
The police swarmed the warehouse seconds later.
Paramedics loaded Nathaniel into an ambulance, and Claire refused to leave his side.
At the hospital, Nathaniel was rushed into surgery.
Claire sat in the sterile waiting room, rocking a sleeping Maya.
Marcus, the estate manager, walked through the double doors.
He looked deeply exhausted.
“Mr. Whitmore is out of surgery,” Marcus said.
“He is asking for you.”
Claire followed Marcus to a private VIP suite.
Nathaniel was pale but awake, propped up against the pillows.
“You took a bullet for me,” Claire said softly.
“I would do it again.”
He reached out, and she took his hand.
“Evelyn escaped,” Nathaniel said grimly.
“The police are searching for her.”
“Why did she want to kill me.”
“Because of my will, Claire.”
Nathaniel pulled a legal document from the bedside table.
“I changed my will two weeks ago.”
He handed her the thick stack of papers.
“If I die, Evelyn gets nothing.”
Claire looked at the beneficiary name printed in bold letters.
It was her name.
Claire Whitmore, it read.
“I left everything to you,” Nathaniel whispered.
“But we aren't married,” Claire said, confused.
“We are now.”
Nathaniel pointed to the last page of the document.
“I filed the proxy marriage papers this morning.”
Claire stared at her own forged signature on the dotted line.
“You forged my signature.”
“It was the only way to give you legal protection against the syndicate.”
Nathaniel looked desperate.
“As my wife, you have the power to freeze all the Rothwell accounts.”
Claire backed away from the bed.
She had gone from a framed housekeeper to a billionaire’s wife in twenty-four hours.
But as she flipped the page, she saw a clause that made her blood run cold.
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In the event of divorce, Claire would lose full custody of Maya.
Nathaniel had trapped her.
