He Stole My $20,000 Legal Fee

From the back cover

After eighteen months of work, attorney Chloe Evans wins her client Tyler Miller a $600,000 judgment against his childhood friend Caleb Brooks. Tyler weeps with gratitude, then vanishes without paying the $20,000 fee he agreed to. When cornered, he insists he already paid her — counting the fifty-dollar cab fare he once covered. He blocks her number, ignores her messages, and finally berates her as a stalker, calling her legal skills mediocre and threatening to report her to the bar.

Chloe had waived the retainer out of pity for Tyler's sick mother and lowered her fee from $30,000. Now she drives two and a half hours to his rural town, only to learn from a neighbor that Tyler and his mother packed up and left the day before, supposedly to stay with out-of-state relatives.

Legal action seems the only way — but the contract belongs to the firm, not to Chloe, and her managing partner Richard Vance refuses to sue a client, warning of a public-relations disaster. Tyler owes her twenty thousand dollars, and every door she knocks on closes in her face.