I looked up and noticed him standing in the doorway, his jaw tight, running a hand through his dark hair. That same gesture when stress was eating him alive. He wasn’t the angry, withdrawn man I’d met five years ago, but I could see it in the tight line of his jaw—the weight of the company was crushing him today.
“Hey,” I said softly, my hand leaving the keyboard. “Everything okay?”
He started pacing in front of my desk. “Thayer is pulling the account.”
His answer landed like stones sinking into my gut. The Thayer Group. A company of generational wealth, dynastic in proportion, built over a hundred and fifty years, and our biggest client. The eight-figure enterprise contract that had put us on the map. A proof that Dom’s genius was worth a king’s ransom.
I closed my laptop slowly, my own heart beginning a heavy, anxious beat. “What happened?” I asked, my voice calm, even as my stomach knotted.
“We had a breach attempt last night,” he said, shrugging out of his coat and throwing it over a chair. “Phantom Siege. The attackers threw a smokescreen of thousands of bots at their portal. Our system successfully identified the pattern, isolated the one successful but illegitimate login, terminated the session, and vaporized the entire swarm in under seven minutes. It was flawless.”
He rubbed his face with his big hand, his energy coming off sharp and frustrated. “Then the engineers got on the debrief call and explained the problem. They walked Thayerthrough the attack vector and explained the credential-stuffing methodology. They identified the compromised credentials. Ten minutes later, we got a call terminating the contract. He said we were arrogant and condescending.”
He stopped in front of me. “Arrogant? For being right? For doing our job perfectly? It makes no damn sense.”
I leaned back, closing my eyes. I could picture it perfectly. A team of geniuses, hand-picked by Dom for their brilliance, blindsiding a 65-year-old CEO with technicalities. I could almost guarantee they made him feel like a dinosaur because he didn’t understand the jargon.
“He told you himself?” I asked.
“He told Francis he was terminating the contract effective immediately and said he ‘won’t be condescended to by kids.’” Dom stopped pacing and leaned on my desk, his blue eyes stormy. “Our biggest account, Eunice.”
I reached out and placed my hand over his. “Breathe. You built an impenetrable fortress.” I gave him a small smile and tapped the headset. “Patch me through to Thayer’s direct line.”
Dom’s expression shifted from frustration to a flicker of hope. I knew he trusted me. He nodded, tapping his phone to give his assistant the instruction. A moment later, the line was ringing.
“Thayer,” a gruff voice answered, clipped, sounding impatient.
“Mr. Thayer, this is Eunice Rutherford from Rutherford Security. How are you?”
“I’ve already spoken to your people,” he snapped. “I’m done.”
“I know, sir. And I’m not calling to talk about that,” I said, my voice deliberately soft and steady. “I’m calling to apologize. You were made to feel disrespected, and there is absolutely no excuse for that.”
There was a beat of silence on the other end. I had his attention.
“You’re right,” I continued. “They’re brilliant, but they live in a world of code. They forget that for our clients, this isn’t about code. It’s about peace of mind. And we failed to give you that today.”
He let out a heavy sigh. “They made me feel like an idiot. Like our whole company was a joke.”
“I understand completely,” I said. “And I promise you, that will not happen again. Can I try to explain what happened without a single word of jargon?”
He grunted. “Proceed.”
“Last night, an impostor approached your company. Not a common barbarian trying to smash down gates, but a master of disguise so clever he could have fooled almost anyone. He approached one of your men and presented himself as a trusted family friend. For a second, your man believed the disguise, but before he could even act, the system in place recognized his fraudulent colors and shut him out.
The silence on the other end of the line was fathomless. I watched Dom’s throat work as he swallowed. He was listening to me.
“You’re the first person over there who’s made a lick of sense,” he finally said. “Fine. I will not terminate the contract, but on one condition.”
“Yes, Mr. Thayer?”
“You’re the only one I’m talking to from now on.”
“I’d be honored, sir,” I said. The tightness in my chest eased as I ended the call.
I took off my headset and met Dom’s gaze. He was standing by the door, one hand up, bracing himself, observing me with so much love and admiration, it pulled the air from my lungs. It was the same pose from that night at the inn, outside my room, when he’d told me he wanted to date me.
He approached, and once he reached my side, he sat on the edge of my desk, his large hands coming to rest on my belly, cupping the swell of our second child. His fingers traced gentle circles before leaning down and pressing a kiss to my hair, then another to my lips.
