Chapter 5

The moment the words left my mouth, Nathan's smug expression turned pitch-black.

"You didn't get it? Nina, are you playing games with me?!"

"I already signed the damn contract, and now you tell me you couldn't get the deed?!"

"Nate, I told you outsiders can't be trusted," Mia sneered from her desk, fanning the flames. "When it counts, she's completely useless."

Watching them lose their minds, I could barely suppress my laughter.

"I'll figure out a way to get it tomorrow, I swear. I'm really sorry," I whispered, continuing my meek wife routine.

"You're a useless piece of trash!" Nathan slammed his fist onto the mahogany desk.

Before he could unleash another barrage of insults, his phone started ringing off the hook.

It was his chief financial officer.

Irritated, Nathan swiped to answer. But within three seconds, every drop of color drained from his face.

"What did you just say?!"

"Carter's legal team is at our headquarters right now?!"

"They're triggering the clawback clause and demanding immediate repayment of the fifty million investment plus interest?!"

Nathan's voice cracked into a frantic shriek.

Sitting quietly on the lounge sofa, the corners of my mouth curled upward.

He had crossed the red line the second he used company funds to buy Mia luxury designer items last month.

Carter's elite corporate attorneys weren't about to give him a single second to breathe.

"That's impossible! On what grounds?!" Nathan paced wildly, cold sweat pouring down his forehead.

He snapped his head toward me, glaring with murder in his eyes.

"Nina! Did you set me up?!"

"Nathan, I've been home all day! How could I possibly contact my brother's high-powered corporate lawyers?" I gasped, looking terrified and innocent.

"You need to get to the office right now before things get worse!"

Nathan didn't have time to worry about the deed anymore. He grabbed Mia by the wrist and bolted out the door.

Watching their panicked figures scramble away, I pulled out my phone and sent Carter a message on WhatsApp:

*Start the lawsuit. Force him to dump that entire thirty-million loan into the hole.*

Carter replied with a thumbs-up emoji.

The only lifeline Nathan had left was the thirty-million-dollar high-interest loan that had just hit his account.

To avoid prison and bankruptcy, his only choice was to dump every single penny of it into paying back Carter's fifty million.

Ten o'clock that night.

Nathan pushed the front door open, looking like he had aged twenty years in a single afternoon.

Mia trailed behind him, stripped of all her earlier smug arrogance.

Nathan collapsed onto the sofa, burying his face in his trembling hands.

"It's over... it's all over..."

I carried a glass of water over to him, pretending to care.

"Nathan, what happened at the company? Is it bad?"

Hearing my voice, he snapped his head up and lunged, grabbing my wrist with bruising force.

"Nina! You have to save me! You have to!"

"Your brother is trying to ruin me! He's demanding fifty million! I already dumped the entire thirty-million bridge loan into it, and I'm still short twenty million!"

His eyes bulged with manic desperation.

"You have to sell your house right now!"

"We're married! My debts are your debts! You have to carry this with me!"

Beside him, Mia shrieked hysterically.

"Nina, don't you dare think you can walk away! If Nathan goes down, you lose everything too!"

Looking at these two cornered rats, I didn't need to hold back anymore.

A soft, clear laugh escaped my lips.

"What are you laughing at, Nina?! Have you lost your mind?!" Nathan roared.

I slapped his hand away from my wrist, unzipped my designer handbag, and pulled out that little red booklet.

I hurled the fake marriage certificate directly into Nathan's face.

"Nathan, open your damn eyes and look. Are we really married?"