My Ears Remembered

Chapter 3

I opened my mouth.

Ryan sneered beside me. "She's an outsourced customer service rep. Who do you think she is?"

Chloe chose that moment to speak. Her voice was gentle, with just the right trace of hurt.

"Manager, I work in cross-border trade. This is my junior colleague's company account, and every transaction is backed by a legitimate contract. This woman... may have misunderstood our relationship."

She pulled up an company registration document on her phone and showed it to the manager.

After a quick look, his expression visibly eased.

"The registration appears legitimate. Ma'am, we can't stop a customer from conducting business based on one person's unsupported allegations."

"The registered address," I said, "belongs to a virtual office building in the Kellan Isles. The International Anti-Money Laundering Organization flagged it last month."

The whole room fell silent for a second.

Then louder laughter erupted.

"The Kellan Isles? This woman watches too many crime dramas."

"They have proper corporate documents, and she's accusing them of money laundering with no evidence?"

Chloe's expression changed.

It lasted only an instant, so brief it was almost impossible to catch.

But her hand slid off the counter, and her fingertips trembled.

Ryan strode toward me and lowered his voice. "Apologize to Chloe right now, Mia. Admit you made the whole thing up, and I'll pretend none of this happened."

I didn't move.

"You're still not leaving?"

He reached for my arm.

"Don't touch me, Ryan. I'm—"

"Here we go again."

His voice dripped with contempt.

"The last time I had dinner with coworkers, you claimed you had a headache. The time before that, when I met a client, you said your heart felt strange. What's wrong with you this time?

"If you're really sick, stay home. Don't come out here and humiliate yourself."

While we argued, Chloe had quietly switched the transfer form. She slid the new one to the teller. It listed another account under another name.

The teller was already checking the information.

The money was seconds from leaving.

I didn't try to pull Ryan away.

Instead, I turned toward the red emergency phone mounted on the wall of the bank lobby.

It connected directly to the Anti-Fraud Center's emergency payment-freeze system.

Small lettering on the receiver read: SUSPECTED TELECOMMUNICATIONS FRAUD HOTLINE.

I picked it up.

A piercing alarm instantly tore through the bank.

Every teller screen was locked. The transfer system shut down, and bulletproof shutters crashed from the ceiling to seal every exit.

Chloe went rigid.

Her hand still hovered over the keypad, but the screen had gone black.

When Ryan saw the emergency phone in my hand, he stormed toward me in a rage.

He raised his hand, the slap cutting through the air...

Then he stopped.

Not because he couldn't bear to hit me. Everyone was watching, and as a respectable corporate vice president, he couldn't strike a woman in public.

Instead, he jabbed a finger against my forehead again and again.

"Do you know what happens when you file a false report? Detention. Fines. A criminal record. You may have no shame, but I do!

"You're an outsourced customer service rep. Who gave you the nerve to touch the bank's fraud hotline? Do you have any idea how many departments that alarm mobilizes?"

He truly didn't know.

He didn't know that I wasn't a customer service rep.

He had never asked what calls I handled at work, what systems I used, or why I was sometimes summoned to work in the middle of the night.

Whenever I came home late, he only said, "What could possibly keep you so busy at that outsourcing company?"

For 2 years, that was all I had been in his world: an unimpressive woman earning 4,000 dollars a month who needed him to support her.

"Make your way up front!"

The Anti-Fraud Center's emergency response team charged down from the second floor, carrying portable tracking equipment and signal jammers.

Their team leader was first, static crackling through his radio like firecrackers.

"Command, emergency freeze triggered at Branch A3. Requesting simultaneous backend freeze on every linked account. Repeat, freeze all linked accounts!"