Clean Books: 6

"Trust is the residue of promises fulfilled."For chef Greer Rafferty, control is everything. She runs the kitchen of her acclaimed New Jersey restaurant, The Brick & Basil, with mathematical precision-counting everything from the tiles on her ceiling to the knives on her magnetic strip. But her carefully ordered world shatters when her trusted accountant, Elliot Sanger, vanishes without a trace.Elliot didn't just disappear; he left behind a meticulously constructed ghost business in Greer's name, defrauding the IRS out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. With federal agents sitting in her dining room and her ex-husband threatening to take custody of their twelve-year-old daughter, Greer is forced to investigate the financial wreckage of her own life.As she digs into the restaurant's pristine books, she discovers a phantom vendor scheme siphoning money directly from her operating account. But the payment timeline reveals a terrifying discrepancy: the fraud began before her accountant even arrived. The chilling realization sets in-the architect of her ruin isn't a fugitive CPA. It's Nola Kessler, her charismatic business partner, her closest confidante, and the woman pouring her espresso every morning.