The debt was staggering.

Pierce Development had three major luxury complexes under construction, and all of them were heavily leveraged with high-interest bridge loans.

According to the bank records Clara had pulled, Nolan’s firm was days away from default on their primary notes.

He hadn’t just wanted my money for greed; he needed it to survive.

The forged settlement agreement was designed to transfer my entire trust fund directly into his holding company to absorb these massive losses.

Without my money, his entire firm was a house of cards.

I scrolled down to the third page of the audit, looking at the list of private creditors.

One name at the bottom of the list caught my attention.

It was a private equity firm registered in Delaware, and beside it was a scan of a loan guarantee.

I zoomed in on the document.

The signature at the bottom of the ten-million-dollar liability was written in elegant, flowing cursive.

It was my name.

But I had never signed it.

I stared at the screen as my phone began to vibrate in my hand, an incoming call from a number I didn’t recognize.