Chapter 5 - A Desperate Morning
Back in Greenwich, the Vance estate was not celebrating victory.
Julian paced the length of his mother’s opulent drawing room, his phone pressed to his ear for the twentieth time. "The number you have reached is no longer in service," the automated operator repeated flatly.
"Dammit!" Julian snarled, tossing the phone onto the velvet sofa. "She actually turned her phone off. She’s probably sitting in some cheap motel downtown waiting for me to come grovel."
Eleanor sat on the settee, nursing an espresso, a fresh diamond pendant catching the morning sun. Her eyes were hard and unrepentant. "Let her rot there, Julian. A few days without your credit cards and she will crawl back on her knees, begging to clean the silver. You shouldn't have married a penniless orphan to begin with. She lacks the pedigree to withstand discipline."
"Mother, you don't understand," Julian muttered, running both hands through his hair. His face was pale, dark circles bruising his eyes. "We need her signature on the deed of the cottage in the Hamptons. My firm... Vance & Montgomery is overleveraged. We have a margin call coming due this week."
"What margin call?" Eleanor frowned, her aristocratic poise slipping slightly. "The bridge loan is guaranteed by Vance Capital."
"The bridge loan is for two hundred and fifty million dollars, Mother!" Julian barked, losing his temper. "The syndicate who holds the paper suddenly called an audit yesterday afternoon! If the lenders call the default, we lose the firm, the Greenwich estate, and the trust funds! I needed Claire's clean credit history to pledge her nominal inheritance as an offshore buffer!"
The drawing room doors swung open, and Julian’s business partner, Richard Montgomery, walked in without knocking. His face was gray as wet cement.
"Julian," Richard said, his hands shaking as he held a legal folder. "We just got a courier from the syndicate’s parent holding company. They’ve terminated the renewal talks."
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Julian froze. "Who terminated it? The syndicate is managed through an anonymous Cayman shell company! Who is the ultimate beneficiary?"
Richard swallowed hard, his voice barely a croak. "Sterling Global. Arthur Sterling himself just initiated immediate foreclosure on all Vance assets."
