🖤 PART 2: THE MAFIA BOSS CLAIMED ME IN FRONT OF 300 PEOPLE… BUT HIS REAL REASON LEFT ME SPEECHLESS.

Nathaniel Mercer stared at me for three seconds.

Then he started walking.

Not toward Grant Holloway. Not toward the wealthy families waiting to shake his hand.

Toward table nineteen.

Toward me.

The conversations around us faded as three hundred people watched the most dangerous man in the Pacific Northwest cross the ballroom with the confidence of someone who had never been told no.

I instinctively lowered my eyes.

Big mistake.

“Look at me,” he said.

I lifted my head.

His gray eyes studied my face, then dropped to my trembling hands. Without asking permission, he removed his black coat and draped it over my bare shoulders.

It smelled faintly of cedar and expensive cologne.

“Stand up and act like you’re mine.”

I stared at him. “Excuse me?”

His expression didn’t change.

“Unless you’d prefer to let those vultures enjoy the rest of their evening.”

Behind him, I heard someone gasp.

I should have refused. I should have asked who he thought he was.

Instead, I stood.

Nathaniel offered his arm.

I took it.

And just like that, the ballroom fell silent.

Across the room, Daniel Reeves had stopped dancing. Madeline’s smile disappeared as she watched Nathaniel guide me past the tables reserved for Blackridge’s most powerful families.

“Who is she?” someone whispered.

“Why would Mercer choose an ordinary payroll clerk?”

“Does he know who she’s connected to?”

I heard every word.

For the first time that evening, however, their whispers didn’t make me feel small.

Nathaniel stopped beside the champagne fountain and leaned closer.

“Your former admirer looks like he swallowed a bullet.”

“Daniel isn’t my admirer.”

“No?” Nathaniel glanced toward him. “Then why has he been watching you for the last thirty seconds?”

I swallowed.

“Because he knows what he did.”

Something cold flickered in Nathaniel’s eyes.

“Good. Let him remember it.”

Before I could respond, Grant Holloway appeared, his smile so strained it looked painful.

“Mr. Mercer, perhaps we should discuss your arrival privately.”

“We will.”

Grant’s gaze shifted to me.

“And the young lady?”

Nathaniel тιԍнтened his arm around mine.

“She stays with me.”

The words landed like a bomb.

Grant went pale.

That was when I realized this wasn’t simply about rescuing an embarrᴀssed woman from a cruel party.

Nathaniel Mercer had just challenged the entire Blackridge organization.

And he had done it for someone whose name he hadn’t even asked.

Twenty minutes later, I found myself on a secluded balcony overlooking the snow-covered mountains.

Nathaniel stood beside the railing, speaking quietly into his phone.

“Yes. Pull the records from the last six months. Every transfer, every signature. I want the original documents before sunrise.”

He ended the call and turned toward me.

“Do you know why Daniel chose Madeline tonight?”

I folded his coat тιԍнтer around myself.

“Because her family has money.”

“That’s part of it.”

“What does that mean?”

He studied me for a moment.

“Your employer has been moving money through several shell companies. Millions of dollars have disappeared from accounts connected to Blackridge Timber. Daniel’s family is involved, and so is Madeline’s.”

My stomach тιԍнтened.

“I work in payroll. I don’t know anything about that.”

“Perhaps not. But someone has been using your employee credentials to authorize payments.”

The cold seemed to penetrate my dress.

“That’s impossible. I never authorized anything beyond regular payroll.”

“I believe you.”

The simple statement nearly undid me.

For eleven months, Daniel had made me feel as though I needed to prove I was worthy of being chosen.

This stranger had known me for less than an hour, yet he had listened.

“Why are you helping me?” I asked.

Nathaniel didn’t answer immediately.

Instead, he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small pH๏τograph.

My breath caught.

It showed my mother standing outside an old wooden house, one hand resting on the shoulder of a little girl.

Me.

I hadn’t seen that pH๏τograph in years.

“Where did you get that?”

“Your mother once saved someone who belonged to my family.”

I shook my head. “My mother was a bookkeeper. She never told me anything about your family.”

“Then perhaps she was protecting you.”

He handed me the pH๏τograph.

On the back, in my mother’s unmistakable handwriting, were six words:

If anything happens, find the boy from Pinehaven.

I stared at the message, my fingers turning numb.

“Who was the boy?”

Nathaniel’s jaw тιԍнтened.

“My older brother.”

I looked up sharply.

“Was my mother involved in his death?”

“No.” His voice became dangerously quiet. “But she knew who ordered it.”

Before I could ask another question, the balcony door swung open.

Daniel stood there, his face flushed with anger.

“Get away from her, Mercer.”

Nathaniel didn’t move.

Daniel looked at me.

“Come with me. We need to talk.”

For one foolish second, the familiar sound of his voice stirred the feelings I’d spent eleven months building.

Then I remembered his relief when he thought I had finally understood my place.

I stayed beside Nathaniel.

Daniel’s expression hardened.

“You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into,” he warned me. “This man doesn’t protect people. He owns them.”

Nathaniel finally turned.

“And yet you had eleven months to protect her, Daniel. Instead, you used her.”

Daniel went silent.

Then Nathaniel delivered the words that made the color drain from his face.

“Tell me, Reeves. Does Madeline know that the money you stole was transferred through this woman’s employee account?”

Daniel’s eyes darted toward me.

And in that single movement, I understood.

He wasn’t afraid of Nathaniel.

He was afraid I might discover the truth.

Nathaniel extended his hand toward me.

“There’s something you need to see.”

I hesitated before taking it.

As he led me toward the door, Daniel shouted after us.

“If you leave with him, you’ll never know what your mother really did!”

I stopped.

Nathaniel’s hand went still around mine.

Slowly, I turned back.

Daniel was smiling now—not the charming smile I’d fallen in love with, but something desperate and cruel.

“Ask Mercer why his brother was investigating your mother the night he died.”

The silence that followed was absolute.

I looked at Nathaniel.

For the first time since he’d entered the ballroom, the ruthless mafia boss appeared genuinely shaken.

Then he leaned toward me and whispered four words that changed everything.

“Your mother was my fiancée.”

And suddenly, the pH๏τograph in my hand felt less like a memory…

…and more like the beginning of a war. 🖤