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I switched off the lights, double-checked the locks on the windows and my desk, and was on my way out of the office when my phone buzzed in my bag. I didn’t immediately answer because a nagging voice at the back of my head said it could be my mother.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with my mother’s calls. In fact, she was the sweetest and most loving person I knew in the world. But, somehow, that call of affection always came at the wrong time and ended with the same question: So, when are you finally walking down the aisle?

God knew I loved her, but sometimes, she could be exhausting, and at the moment, I didn’t particularly have the mental strength to go through that line of questioning.

However, the buzzing didn’t stop, and I might have as well muttered some colorful words under my breath.

My goodness.

Placing the cold steel key between my lips and fisting the Chanel bag with one hand, I rummaged through its contents until my fingers tapped the soft boring green pouch protecting my phone. I pulled out the vibrating device, somewhat surprised to see Dr. Amelia Greystone flashing on the screen.

I pressed the phone between my shoulder and cheek, focusing on locking the door. “Hello, ma’am— Amelia ?”

“Are you out of the clinic yet?”

“Uh….” Looking around at nothing in particular, I dropped the key into my bag with creased brows. “No? Um, I mean, not yet. I was just locking up, but I’m still here. Is there a problem?”

At the other end of the line, I thought I heard her exhale a strangled chuckle, but I couldn’t be sure. “It’s something like that, but not what you’re thinking. I know it’s past your closing hour, but I’ll need you to make a quick stop at my office now. I’ve got something to show you.”

“Sure. I’ll be there in a sec.”

The minute Amelia disconnected the call, my mind went into a spinning mess. Different scenarios of many things that could have suddenly gone wrong started playing like a horror movie in my head, but I maintained control over my breathing and squeezed my trembling fingers into fists.

It was normal for me to feel agitated, right?

Only two days ago, I’d practically stormed into her office, saying to her face that the opportunities and cases she’d given me to handle felt like a kindergartner’s playground. I believe I’d demanded “ more serious work.” Since then, I’d neither heard Amelia’s voice nor seen her face. And the first time I actually did, after two long days, she called to say there was a problem.

Wonderful.

With a gulp, I slowly walked down the corridors. My heart was racing with the speed of a hunting cheetah, and I wasn’t feeling as confident as I had been two days before.

Approaching her office, I spotted Amelia through the glass walls, hunched over her desktop computer and a bunch of paperwork, with her hair dangling below her shoulders. I swallowed and dropped three light knocks on the door in quick succession.

“Hazel?” she called from inside, and I turned the knob to poke my head through the gap. She offered a small smile. “Please, come in. Take a seat.”

I lowered myself onto the chair and forced my mind to relax under the pressure of the suffocating silence that followed. For a while, the only sounds in the room emanated from her fingers tapping fast and hard on the white keyboard. With her intent gaze on the screen and lips drawn in a grim line, I dreaded breaking the silence, but the suspense was threatening to kill me.

“So… Amelia, I’m truly, very sorry to interrupt whatever it is you’re doing, but I’m nervous.” I blew out a light chuckle to add emphasis and visibly relaxed when she looked up with a small smile. “I hope I’m not the one in trouble.”

“I told you already.” She plopped back on her chair, rubbing her temple with the grimace of an exhausted workaholic. “It’s nothing like that. There’s a problem, all right, but it’s one I want you to handle.”

I opened my mouth. Then, I shut it.

What?

My skin tingled as a sudden surge of electric energy coursed through my veins, like a spark igniting a flame. I felt my heart rate accelerate. Excitement and nerves intertwined, creating a thrilling blend of emotions I fought hard to contain. I hadn’t even heard her out yet, and I needed to hear the full thing before my elation got the best of me.

Masking my joy, I sat forward and proceeded with caution. “You have a problem you want me to handle?”

It wouldn’t be the first time the CEO of Prime Care Medical Center wanted me to handle a responsibility. It was my job, the exact work I was paid to do. However, it was certainly the first time she referred to such responsibility as a problem .

Amelia shifted in her chair, reached for a thin blue folder beside her computer, and handed it to me. “You wanted a challenge, didn’t you? Well, congratulations, Hazel Sinclair. You’ve landed yourself a very tough nut to crack.”

That could only mean one thing: I was graduating from kindergarten.

I was smiling so hard that my cheekbones ached, and the buzzing sensation in my chest made me want to scream and roll on the floor with hysterical laughter. The folder in my hands felt like carrying tons of gold medals. Gold medals that belonged to me .

Before I opened the folder jacket, I inhaled a long breath of triumph. Gosh, if my mother could see me now, she would go right ahead and tell me to stop being dramatic.

Quickly, I scanned through the biographical data report of our tough-nut client, taking note of the necessary details: the client’s personal information, medical, family, and social history, and additional information.

NAME: Miron Yezhov

DATE OF BIRTH (MM/DD/YY): March 12, 1984

PLACE OF BIRTH: Village of Pushkin, Leningrad Oblast, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Saint Petersburg Oblast, Russia)

AGE: 41

Then, I flipped back to the personal information, and the client’s photograph that was attached made me pause. The truth was, he looked anything but forty-one. If I had to guess, I’d have left it at thirty, or thirty-five, maybe.

The photograph was clear enough, capturing even the most minute details of the man. His eyes were like sapphires, the light blue hue as mesmerizing as the very essence of the sky. His hair was a rich, dirty honey-blond, which fell across his forehead in loose, tousled waves and framed his face, perfectly accentuating the striking angles of his bone structure. And it was the most masterful blend of elegance and rugged masculinity I’d ever seen in a human being. With his nose, straight and proud, which stood sentinel over his full lips, and the sharp definition of his jawline, honed from the finest granite, the man was a work of art. One of God’s best, to be precise.

What problems could this charming creature possibly have?

“Hazel, I know you’re happy about this, but….” Amelia’s voice forced my eyes away from the handsome sculpt of a man to focus on her instead, and she looked worried. “This is a classified Level One folder. Being unprofessional, I’d tag it a ‘Code Red.’”

Closing the folder gently, I slid it back on the table with creased brows and a shrug. “A Code Red? Isn’t that a bit, I don’t know, too serious a tag for a client?”

“You think I am being overly dramatic, don’t you?”

My mother would have thought she was being overly dramatic. I just wondered why she seemed so stressed out by this one problem. Her reputation was a great one, and it preceded her. Prima Care was one of the best private clinics in the country. There was almost nothing and no one we couldn’t take good care of.

When I didn’t say anything, she misread my silence and continued with a deep sigh. “Fine. Maybe I am being over the top about this one, but that’s because he’s my cousin, and I have known Miron all my life. Let me tell you, he’s not an easy one. It takes a lot, Hazel, and I mean a lot of patience to work and deal with him.”

Ah, a relative. Family ties. That revelation was… interesting. When I looked more closely, I thought I could spot a few resemblances, other than the most obvious attractiveness that ran in their blood. But that didn’t explain the conflict. Amelia wasn’t saying everything, and that piqued my interest.

“Please tell me, what exactly am I dealing with?”

She dragged a hand down her face. “Anger management issues.”

A forty-one-year-old with anger management issues?

I sucked in a sharp breath. I believed the picture was becoming clearer. “You’re putting it lightly, aren’t you?”

“Yes, Hazel, I am,” she sighed. “Miron Yezhov has explosive tempers and emotional volatility. Clinically speaking, I suspect it’s IED, but don’t ever tell him that to his face. Please. Want to know the reason he’s coming here? By court order, after he narrowly escaped jail time for one count of aggravated assault and felony battery against Jeffery Smith.”

“Jeffery Smith? The politician?”

She nodded.

My eyes were as wide as saucers now, and as much as I was sure I didn’t want to know—but would still find out sooner or later—I had to ask. “What did he do?”

“He thrashed the man’s head with a hundred-thousand-dollar bottle of wine at a social event.”

Goodness. He thrashed the man’s— did she say aggravated assault? Wasn’t that a charge for attempted murder?

My stomach dipped so low, and I thought I heard the healthy pounding of my heart racing in my ears. Glancing at his folder, sitting pretty on the desk, it now felt like I had been given a ton of bricks to carry. I didn’t even realize I almost forgot to breathe until Amelia waved a hand in my face.

“Hey, are you okay? You’re looking a little blue.”

“Me? Looking blue?” I laughed, but we both knew I sounded like a choking weasel. “No, I’m good. I’m perfectly fine. It’s just that I…this is—”

“I know this will be your first time on a case like this, but don’t be—don’t be intimidated, okay? I will tell you now: He is going to be a lot of work. He will put your patience and level of intelligence to the test; that’s for sure. But one thing he won’t do is suddenly explode in your office. He knows what will happen if we send a bad report back to the court on his behavior and progress.”

Not exploding in my office? That wasn’t a promise. She couldn’t be sure of that. The man swung a bottle across another man’s head in the presence of probably a hundred others—attacking someone old enough to be my grandfather. Good Lord! It was surely a miracle he even survived to press charges.

Now, I wasn’t so sure about the joy I felt earlier when she informed me about the challenge. This wasn’t a Congratulations situation. It was more of a “Good Luck, Hazel! You’re going to need plenty of it.”

Amelia let out a long breath and shook her head, and before she said it, I saw it in her eyes—the subtle withdrawal. “Cassie will be available to shuffle. Hazel, I can take this back if you’re not—”

“I am. I am sure.” I announced it with renewed vigor, but a war still waged in my head. The war of deciding how armed and prepared I was to enter into this battle. It might have been my first Harvard-standard type of case, but I’d worked too hard to give up before even starting.

So, I was going to make sure that an opportunity like this certainly wouldn’t be my last. I was going to prove myself and make sure of it.

Rising to my feet, I gave Amelia the brightest and most encouraging smile I had ever given anyone. “I can handle this, Amelia. I said it before, and I’ll repeat it again: Nothing and no one is too difficult. I am truly grateful to you for this opportunity. I promise I won’t let you down.”