[COMPLETED] He Humiliated Me Before 300 Gala Guests—Then a Feared Crime Boss Walked Straight Toward My Table

Nathaniel Mercer did not look at the empty chairs around my table.

He looked at me.

I had spent the last several minutes wishing the room would forget I existed. Now the one person capable of commanding everyone's attention was standing close enough for me to see the pale scar crossing his temple.

“Emma Parker?”

My name sounded strange in his voice.

“Yes.”

He glanced at my hands. I had pressed them together so tightly that my fingers had gone white. Then he removed his black coat and settled it over my shoulders, careful not to touch me more than necessary.

The fabric was warm. It smelled faintly of cedar and cold night air.

From the dance floor, Daniel stopped moving.

Nathaniel bent just enough for only me to hear him.

“Stand up and act like you're mine.”

I stared at him.

“I don't belong to anyone.”

Something shifted behind his gray eyes. Not irritation. If anything, it looked like approval.

“Then stand up as yourself,” he said. “I need them to see they're not going to corner you tonight.”

I should have asked what he meant. Instead, I noticed Daniel watching us, his hand still resting at Madeline's waist. The relief I had seen on his face a few minutes earlier had disappeared.

That was enough to make me stand.

Nathaniel moved his hand away from the back of my chair. He gave me space, and the fact that he did made the gesture feel different from all the choices other people had made for me that evening.

The conversations nearest us resumed in nervous fragments.

Across the ballroom, Grant Holloway began walking toward our table. His smile was the kind people wore when their plans had been interrupted but they hadn't decided whether to admit it.

“Mr. Mercer,” he said. “I can arrange a better seat.”

“This one is fine.”

Grant glanced at me as though trying to understand why I had become part of the discussion.

“Emma works in payroll,” he explained. “I'm sure she would be more comfortable with the other employees.”

“Emma can decide where she's comfortable.”

The words were quiet. They carried farther than Grant's attempted friendliness.

“I should probably go,” I said.

I meant it. I wanted my apartment, my unreliable heater, and a door I could shut without asking permission. But Blackridge rules were still in force, and Grant was still the man at the top of the company that paid me.

Grant's eyes narrowed slightly.

“The closing toast hasn't happened.”

“Then perhaps we should discuss why,” Nathaniel replied.

He turned toward the banquet floor. I followed his gaze to the display beside the stage, where the evening's partnership documents waited beneath an arrangement of white flowers. I'd spent enough years working for Blackridge to recognize the names of the companies involved. One belonged to the Cross family. Another had appeared in payroll reconciliation reports I had been reviewing for months.

Cedar Gate Logistics.

My stomach tightened.

Nathaniel noticed. He didn't ask me about it there.

“Pinehaven won't endorse the East Fork agreement tonight,” he said to Grant. “Not until the supporting figures are verified independently.”

Grant's smile vanished for an instant.

“Those figures have already been certified.”

“By whom?”

The question sounded ordinary. Grant's reaction did not.

He looked at me again.

I suddenly wished I understood more than I did.

At Blackridge, my job was to make sure people were paid the amounts they had earned. I checked hours, deductions, and discrepancies. I didn't negotiate freight contracts. I didn't attend board meetings. I certainly didn't certify acquisitions worth more money than I'd see in a lifetime.

But three months earlier, Cedar Gate's name had begun appearing in reports connected to labor allocations. Some figures hadn't matched the records attached to them. I had asked Daniel why.

He'd told me the finance department was handling it.

I'd wanted to believe that answer, just as I'd wanted to believe everything else he told me.

“Mr. Mercer,” Grant said, lowering his voice, “there must be a misunderstanding.”

“That's what the review will establish.”

Grant took a breath. His gaze drifted toward Daniel, who was approaching with Madeline beside him. The silver bracelet shone against her wrist.

Daniel stopped when he saw the coat on my shoulders.

“Emma,” he said. “Can we have a word?”

Eleven months of midnight messages were packed into those few syllables. I had once waited all day to hear him say my name.

“No.”

He blinked.

Madeline looked from his face to mine. For the first time, I wondered how much she knew about what had happened between us. Her expression was guarded, but it wasn't triumphant.

“I think there's been some confusion,” Daniel said.

“There wasn't any confusion when you walked past me.”

The words came out steadier than I felt.

His face tightened, and I saw him preparing a reply. Nathaniel didn't interrupt. He stood beside me and allowed Daniel's silence to answer for him.

Finally Madeline touched Daniel's sleeve.

“Why is he talking about Cedar Gate?” she asked.

Daniel looked toward Grant. It was only a glance, but the exchange told me the question mattered.

Nathaniel's phone vibrated. He checked the screen and slipped it away without showing anyone. Then he addressed Grant again.

“Preserve every document supporting the East Fork figures,” he said. “Including the payroll certifications. My counsel will send the request in writing.”

“Of course,” Grant answered too quickly.

I had never heard a man with Grant Holloway's authority agree to anything so readily.

The orchestra began playing again, though the musicians watched our table between notes. Nearby guests pretended to return to their conversations. I understood then that the spectacle Daniel had created was no longer the only reason people were watching.

Nathaniel leaned slightly toward me.

“Is there somewhere you can speak without your employer listening?”

I studied his face. Fear had made me accept Daniel's explanations for almost a year. I wasn't going to repeat that mistake simply because another powerful man had offered me his coat.

“Will you tell me why you're interested?”

“Yes. But not here.”

Grant stepped forward. “Emma is a valued employee. Any questions should go through our legal department.”

Nathaniel met his eyes.

“Then your legal department can explain why a payroll approval bearing her name was entered at eleven fifty-eight tonight.”

I felt the floor seem to shift beneath my shoes.

At eleven fifty-eight, I'd been sitting at table nineteen, waiting for Daniel to choose me.

Nathaniel saw the recognition on my face.