Chapter 4 - The Unmasking at BlackridgeAt 9:00 AM the following morning, the executive boardroom of Blackridge Timber and Development on Main Street in Jackson was in total, high-stakes panic.
Grant Holloway, Daniel Reeves, and his father, Arthur Reeves, sat around the long mahogany table, yelling frantically over ringing phone lines and flashing tablet screens.
The news that Nathaniel Mercer had publicly claimed Clara Vance at the annual gala had detonated across Wyoming's business sector at sunrise.
Standing near the window, wearing a sharp navy suit, looking pale, disheveled, and sweating through his collar, was Daniel.
"It doesn't make sense!" Daniel shouted, pacing across the carpet. "Clara is a nobody! She lives in a five-hundred-dollar apartment above a laundromat! Why would Nathaniel Mercer step between us?!"
"Because she holds the 2025 payroll audit, you idiot!" Arthur Reeves roared, slamming his fist flat against the mahogany table. "I told you to clear those ledgers weeks ago! If Mercer gets his hands on those files, he controls our primary land leases!"
BOOM!
The heavy double oak doors of the boardroom were thrown open with a thunderous crash.
Two broad-shouldered State Troopers cleared a wide path through the executive foyer.
Walking down the center aisle, wearing an immaculate floor-length ivory wool coat that draped over her radiant frame, holding her head high, her posture royal and sovereign, was me.
And walking directly beside me—wearing a tailored dark suit, his broad hand anchored securely around my waist, radiating a terrifying, absolute authority—was Nathaniel Mercer.
Daniel dropped his coffee cup. CRASH!
The porcelain shattered against the parquet floorboards, hot liquid splashing across his leather shoes, but Daniel didn't look down. His jaw sagged open, his eyes bulging out of his head in total, horror-stricken shock as he stared at the woman he had discarded nine hours ago.
"Clara...?" Daniel stammered out, his voice cracking into a high, pathetic squeak. "What... what are you doing here with him?!"
Nathaniel stepped forward, his massive frame casting a dark, imposing shadow over the entire boardroom table.
"Mrs. Clara Mercer is here as the primary auditor for Pinehaven Enterprises," Nathaniel announced cleanly, his baritone echoing through the silent room.
Grant Holloway jumped up, his face paper-white. "Mrs. Mercer?! That's impossible! There was no wedding!"
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Nathaniel pulled a red-bordered legal folder from his coat, dropping it flat onto the mahogany blotter between them.
"As of eight o'clock this morning," Nathaniel stated with a razor-sharp, lethal smile, "the State Attorney General’s Office unsealed a twenty-count federal indictment against Daniel Reeves and Arthur Reeves for grand embezzlement, corporate tax fraud, and land-deed forgery."
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