Chương 4
I felt strangely calm.
“What happens if you lose the company?”
Julian looked at me.
“I lose everything I put into it.”
“Anything else?”
He hesitated.
Darcy saw it.
“What else?”
His phone buzzed on the counter.
Nobody reached for it.
It buzzed again.
Then a third time.
Julian looked at the screen.
I saw the name before he turned it facedown.
Camille.
Eleanor saw it too.
“Why is your sister calling?”
Julian closed his eyes.
“Because she found out this morning.”
“Found out what?”
He did not answer.
Eleanor stepped toward him.
“Julian.”
He looked at his mother with the exhausted expression of a man who had spent too long holding a door closed against rising water.
“I pledged more than my shares.”
Eleanor stopped.
“What else did you pledge?”
His phone buzzed again.
He picked it up this time.
Camille’s message appeared across the screen.
MOM NEEDS TO KNOW BEFORE THE BANK CALLS HER.
Eleanor read it over his arm.
For several seconds she did not move.
Then she whispered, “What did you do?”
Julian sat back down.
And when he finally answered, he could not look at any of us.
“I signed a guarantee using Mercer Health.”
Eleanor did not seem to understand the sentence at first.
Her eyes stayed on Julian’s face, waiting for him to translate it into something less catastrophic.
“What does that mean?”
Julian pressed his fingers against his forehead.
“It means I used the company as additional security.”
“You cannot use my company as security.”
“Technically, there’s a structure—”
“Do not say technically to me.”
Her voice cracked across the room with enough force that even Darcy looked up.
Julian stopped.
Eleanor stepped closer to the table.
“Did you forge my name?”
“No.”
“Did you sign mine?”
“No.”
“Then how?”
Julian swallowed.
“There’s an old authorization Dad put in place when I joined the board.”
Eleanor stared at him.
“For operating expenses.”
“I know.”
“For Mercer Health.”
“I know.”
“Not for some startup I have never heard of.”
“I know.”
The third admission came out almost inaudibly.
Eleanor pulled out a chair but did not sit.
Her hand gripped the back of it.
I had never seen her look old before.
She was sixty-seven and took pride in making sure nobody forgot she owned a Pilates reformer and knew what retinol was.
That morning, ten years seemed to settle onto her at once.
Darcy spoke carefully.
“Julian, what exactly did you sign?”
He looked at her.
“I’d rather have my attorney explain it.”
“That would be wise.”
He seemed surprised.
Darcy continued.
“You should call one.”
The suggestion frightened him more than accusation would have.
“You think I need my own lawyer?”
“I think everyone in this room needs to stop assuming they understand the legal consequences of documents none of us have seen.”
Eleanor finally sat.
“What happens to the clinics?”
Julian rubbed his hands together.
“Nothing, if Monday goes well.”
Darcy’s expression hardened.
“That is not an answer.”
“It’s the answer I have.”
“No, it’s the answer you’ve been using to get through the weekend.”
Julian looked at her with open dislike.
Darcy did not care.
I looked at the microwave clock.
10:06.
Less than twenty-four hours earlier, I had been refusing to fund a vacation.
Now I was standing in my own kitchen listening to my husband explain that he might have entangled his dead father’s medical company in a financing deal nobody else knew existed.
My brain kept trying to return to smaller things.
The tea stain on my blouse.
The missing socks.
The fact that I had left soup untouched in a hotel room.
Those details felt manageable.
Julian did not.
His phone rang.
Camille this time, not a message.
He let it ring twice.
Eleanor held out her hand.
“Give it to me.”
“Mom.”
“Give me the phone.”
“It’s my phone.”
Eleanor’s eyes narrowed.
“Then answer it.”
He did.
“Hey.”
Camille’s voice came through loudly enough that we could all hear the first sentence.
“Is Mom there?”
Julian turned down the volume.
“Yes.”
“Does she know?”
He looked at Eleanor.
“She knows some of it.”
“Some of it?”
“Camille.”
“No, I’m done with Camille.”
Her voice was sharp and breathless.
“I have spent since seven this morning trying to figure out why Ridgeway Capital sent me a notice about a default provision tied to Mercer Health.”
Eleanor shut her eyes.
Julian stood abruptly.
“Can we not do this on speaker?”
“You called me a paranoid bitch last night.”
“I did not.”
“You absolutely did.”
“I said you were acting paranoid.”
“Remarkably different.”
A small, exhausted sound escaped Eleanor.
It might have been a laugh.
It might have been disbelief.
Camille heard it.
“Mom?”
“I’m here.”
There was a pause.
When Camille spoke again, her voice changed.
“Are you okay?”
“No.”
That simple answer seemed to quiet everyone.
Camille exhaled.
“Okay.”
Eleanor looked at Julian.
“What notice?”
Julian shook his head.
“It’s procedural.”
Darcy muttered, “There’s that word.”
Julian glared at her.
Camille said, “Who is that?”
“My attorney,” I said.
Another pause.
“Sloan?”
“Yes.”
“What are you doing there?”
“I own the house.”
Julian closed his eyes.
I regretted the answer immediately because it sounded like I was trying to score a point.
Camille made a confused noise.
“What?”
“Later,” Eleanor said.
“Please.”
Camille went quiet.
Then she said, “The notice says a covenant was breached.”
Julian leaned over the island.
“It’s curable.”
“By Monday?”
“Yes.”
“So that part is true.”
Eleanor looked from the phone to Julian.
“What part?”
Camille answered.
“He needs another seventy-five thousand dollars.”
Nobody spoke.
Then Camille added, “Or Ridgeway can accelerate the loan.”
Darcy’s eyes sharpened.
“How large is the loan?”
Julian reached for the phone.
“Enough.”
Camille laughed harshly.
“That means he hasn’t told you.”
Eleanor’s hand flattened against the table.
“Tell me.”
Julian said nothing.
Camille did.
“Two hundred and fifty thousand.”
I sat down.
Not because I chose to.
May you like
My knees simply stopped feeling trustworthy.
The forty thousand dollars had already sounded enormous.
