Chapter 8 - The Ultimatum
I stared at the man in the dark suit, my heart hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs.
I didn't scream, and I didn't drop my laptop bag.
Instead, I looked at the glowing screen of the phone he was holding out to me.
The caller ID displayed the name of the man I had spent five years loving, serving, and trusting.
“Tell him I have absolutely nothing to say,” I replied, my voice remarkably steady despite the adrenaline flooding my veins.
The man in the suit didn't flinch or lower the phone.
“He said to tell you that if you don't answer, he will release the documents proving you authorized the corporate wire transfers.”
My blood ran completely cold.
I snatched the phone from the man's hand and pressed it tightly against my ear.
“You have exactly one minute to explain why you sent a thug to corner me in a foreign country,” I whispered harshly.
Jason's voice crackled through the speaker, sounding breathless, terrified, and violently angry all at once.
“You ruined everything!” he screamed, completely abandoning his usual polished demeanor.
“Do you have any idea what you've done to my family tonight?”
“The card declined in front of Mark's father, and now they know I don't have the capital I promised them.”
I let out a dry, humorless laugh that echoed off the stone walls of the alley.
“You mean the capital I earned by working sixty-hour weeks while you played golf with your mother?”
“You are incredibly selfish,” he hissed desperately.
“I had to forge the mortgage and promise them that money to buy into Mark's real estate firm.”
“It was an investment for our future, and you just destroyed it out of petty jealousy over a harmless wedding.”
“I saw the live stream, Jason.”
Silence heavily fell over the line for a fleeting, satisfying second.
“I saw your mother humiliate me, and I saw you kiss the woman in the red dress.”
Jason let out a frantic, trembling breath.
“Elena means nothing, she's just a business associate I had to keep happy to secure the deal!”
“If you don't wire the eighty-five thousand dollars back into the joint account by midnight, Mark's people are going to take the apartment.”
“And they aren't going to stop with the apartment, they are going to come after both of us.”
I looked at the suited man standing patiently in front of me.
“They can have the apartment, Jason, because I'm never coming back to New York.”
“You can't hide in Rome forever,” Jason threatened, his voice dropping to a sinister whisper.
“If you don't send the money, I will hand over the mortgage documents to the police and swear you orchestrated the fraud to fund your runaway vacation.”
Before I could respond, the man in the suit smoothly took the phone out of my hand.
May you like
He ended the call, slipped the device back into his pocket, and stepped entirely out of my way.
“Midnight, Mrs. Miller,” the man said politely before disappearing into the shadows of the alley.
