Broken Glass

The elevator doors slid open on the ground floor. Roman waited in the polished marble lobby, leaning against the reception desk in an immaculate designer suit. Nothing about his tailored posture signaled debt collection, except for the cold, predatory gleam in his eyes as they tracked Talia.

Terrified that her colleagues might overhear her ruin, she crossed the floor, gripped Roman by the sleeve of his coat, and steered him toward the exit.

"Not in here. Outside."

Roman followed without resistance, a faint smirk touching his lips as they passed through the revolving doors and into the biting January wind. Talia did not stop until she had guided him across the asphalt and behind a heavy concrete pillar, far from the glass walls of the corporate tower.

She released his arm and stepped back into the freezing shadow. "What are you doing here? How did you find my office?"

Roman pulled a smartphone from his coat pocket, tapped the glass screen, and held it directly before her face. "Your father gave me your details. Workplace, home address, shift schedules. Jared proved eager to trade your information to save his own skin once his credit dried up. He vanished two weeks ago and stopped answering my calls. His payments are overdue, and the interest keeps mounting. If I do not receive the full balance by noon tomorrow, the family home will be seized as collateral."

Talia stared at the climbing figures on the screen, her chest tightening until she could barely draw breath. "Noon tomorrow? That is impossible. I need more time."

Roman lowered the phone, his gaze dead and flat. "Your family has had ten years, Talia."

Her voice broke as she stepped closer, fighting down the rising panic. "Please. That house is the only roof my dying mother has left. Give me one more week. I will find the money. I will make this right."

Roman looked down at her with cold contempt. "You want seven days to produce money you have never seen in your life. How will you get it? Ask your boss for a handout? Girls like you do not receive miracles. You get buried."

"I am not asking for a miracle. I am asking for time." Talia held her ground, her jaw tight.

Roman pocketed his phone and adjusted his silk cuffs. "Twenty-four hours. That is your only compromise. Have the full payment by noon tomorrow, or my people change the locks on the house. The clock is running."

He turned on his heel and strode away across the parking lot. Talia pressed her spine against the rough concrete pillar, her legs trembling so hard she could barely remain upright. Twenty-four hours. One day before her mother lost the only home she had ever known.

Crisp footsteps echoed across the asphalt.

Talia turned her head. Kaelen Voss walked past, a phone pressed to his ear as his deep voice delivered sharp instructions. The parking lot was far too quiet for him not to have heard the conversation. Yet when his sharp eyes swept over Talia, they lingered for only a fraction of a second before cutting away into utter indifference. He continued toward his black Mercedes without uttering a single word, treating her as nothing more than background scenery. He unlocked the sedan, climbed inside, and drove past the gate without looking back.

A hollow chill settled in Talia's chest. To him, she was just an assistant, another problem that was not his to solve.

Feeling suffocated, she hurried back inside the tower, grabbed her bag from her desk, and headed straight for the exit. The air inside the building felt too thin to breathe.

Chidi caught her near the elevators, holding two paper coffee cups. "Talia? Where are you going? It is only two o'clock."

Talia kept her eyes fixed on the doors, forcing a hasty lie past her lips. "My mother took a turn for the worse at the hospital. I have to go."

Chidi set down the cups, his expression softening with sympathy. "I am so sorry. Do you need anything? Do you want me to drive you?"

"No. I just need to go. Thank you, Chidi." Talia stepped into the waiting elevator before he could see her face crumble.

The subway ride home was a crowded blur of damp coats, heat, and cheap cologne. Talia stood near the center pole, her knuckles white around the metal bar as the train rattled through the tunnel. Intense panic fought against the memory of Kaelen's million-dollar marriage proposition.

One million dollars. Two years of playing his wife would pay Roman, save the house, and secure specialized cancer treatment for her mother.

Talia shook her head, disgust rising in her throat. She dismissed the thought. She refused to sell her dignity to Kaelen Voss. There had to be another way. She still had her own emergency savings.

When she reached her apartment building, her stomach dropped.

Her third-floor apartment door stood wide open. The wood around the deadbolt had splintered into pale, jagged shards.

Talia pushed the damaged door wider and stepped inside.

Her apartment had been ransacked. Dresser drawers were overturned on the rug, cushions were slashed open with stuffing spilled across the linoleum, and possessions lay tossed in every direction.

"No. Please, no." Talia dropped her bag and raced into her bedroom.

The closet door hung crooked on a broken hinge. Boxes and shoes had been torn from the shelves and thrown across the floor.

Talia dropped to her knees, shoved the debris aside, and reached into the hidden cavity behind the rear floorboard. Her shaking fingers closed around the cold metal handle of her concealed steel lockbox.

She dragged it out into the dim light.

The padlock had been pried open with force, the twisted steel latch hanging loose.

Talia pulled back the lid.

The interior was empty.

Three thousand dollars. Every single penny she had scraped together by skipping meals and working endless overtime for her mother's chemotherapy was gone.

Talia stared into the hollow metal box as the breath left her lungs. The lock on the building's street entrance downstairs had not been broken; it required an authentic key. Only one other person possessed a key to her apartment and knew about the hidden floorboard in her closet.

Jared.

Her own father had robbed her of her mother's life savings.