Chương 7
He had also leased a luxury SUV through the company, retained two country club memberships, financed the Rolex, and spent nearly sixty thousand dollars entertaining clients and lenders during the same period.
“Why didn’t you cut these?” Rebecca asked, circling the memberships.
“One is where the First Carolina executives play.”
“Do they extend credit based on your handicap?”
“They take meetings there.”
“Then keep one.”
“The other is where Halcyon’s CEO belongs.”
“You are paying twelve hundred dollars a month for the possibility of seeing a man who wants to buy your company.”
“It got me the meeting.”
“What did the meeting produce?”
“A preliminary offer.”
He slid a document toward her.
Halcyon proposed purchasing selected assets, the customer list, and certain contracts. It would assume none of the bank debt. It would retain twenty-two employees for at least six months and close the North Carolina production facility.
“What happens to the building?” Rebecca asked.
“The bank sells it.”
“What happens to the remaining employees?”
“They get whatever severance we can afford.”
“So nothing.”
“I am negotiating.”
“What happens to Dad’s guaranty?”
“The proceeds reduce it.”
“Reduce it to what?”
Jonathan rubbed his eyes. “Depending on the equipment auction, maybe four hundred thousand.”
“And where does he get four hundred thousand?”
“The trust has assets.”
Rebecca stared at him.
“You planned to use their retirement trust.”
“I planned to prevent litigation.”
“By emptying the money they live on.”
“They would still have the house and Social Security.”
“Mom’s prescriptions cost twenty-two thousand dollars a year.”
“I know that.”
“Do you?”
He stood and carried his coffee to the kitchen, though the pot was empty.
Rebecca opened the next folder. Inside were emails between Jonathan and a private lender called Ralston Capital. The proposed bridge loan was for three hundred thousand dollars at eighteen percent interest, secured by the company’s receivables, equipment, and a personal pledge.
“Whose personal pledge?” she asked.
Jonathan remained at the counter.
“Mine.”
“That does not cover the loan.”
“They requested additional collateral.”
“What collateral?”
He said nothing.
She read further.
The lender wanted a second-position lien on a residential property owned free and clear.
Patricia and Charles’s home.
Rebecca looked up.
“You told me the house was not involved.”
“It isn’t.”
“They requested it.”
“I didn’t agree.”
“Did you ask Dad?”
“No.”
“Were you going to?”
“I was going to explain the situation.”
“When?”
“When I had a solution to present with it.”
“You mean when the only way to save the company was for him to say yes.”
Jonathan turned from the counter. “What would you have me do? Walk in and say I failed? Tell him the business he built over thirty-five years is insolvent because I expanded for a contract that collapsed? Tell Mom they might have to sell the house because a guaranty he signed ten years ago is still enforceable? Then ask him to trust me with the solution?”
“Yes.”
“That is easy for you.”
“No, it is not.”
“It is. You left.”
The words struck an old place.
Rebecca leaned back.
Jonathan continued before she could answer. “You went to Chicago. You built your consulting firm. You visited on holidays and gave opinions. I stayed. I worked with Dad when he still threw pencils at the wall if a bid came in wrong. I handled Mom’s calls. I took him to cardiology appointments. I sat in that office while he told me every day that you had the head for the business and I had the temperament.”
Rebecca looked down at the document.
Charles had said something similar once, though not in front of Jonathan. Rebecca had been twenty-six. He told her she could run the company if she wanted. She had said no because she wanted a life that did not smell like sawdust and resentment.
She had not considered that her refusal might become the standard Jonathan believed he had failed to meet.
“That does not make the numbers different,” she said.
“No. It just makes your judgment cheaper.”
He sat again.
For a while, they reviewed documents without speaking.
At one fifteen, Rebecca ordered sandwiches from a deli. Jonathan ate half of his and wrapped the rest in the paper as if he intended to save it. She had never seen him save food.
“Did you use my account for payroll?” she asked.
“Forty-eight thousand.”
“And the rest?”
He looked at the legal pad.
“School tuition, mortgage, the watch, travel, client expenses.”
“Why the tuition?”
“We were already late. Sophie was going to be removed from the fall trip.”
“So you stole from me.”
“I borrowed.”
“Borrowing requires permission.”
“You would have said no.”
“That does not improve your argument.”
He pressed his palms to his eyes.
“I kept thinking the next contract would land,” he said. “Then the hospital project delayed. Then the bank reduced availability because receivables aged past ninety days. Every month there was a point where another thirty days would have fixed it.”
“And every month you made the hole deeper.”
“Yes.”
The admission came without defense.
Rebecca set down her pen.
“What happened to the mortgage payment?”
“I paid the school.”
“Melissa said it bounced.”
“The automatic draft hit before I moved money.”
“Does she know how much debt you have?”
“No.”
“Does anyone?”
“Now you.”
Rebecca looked at the banker’s box.
“Who is the private lender?”
“Ralston buys distressed debt. They also introduce turnaround managers.”
“That sounds like a man explaining why a shark has useful teeth.”
Jonathan almost smiled.
It disappeared quickly.
“I need the loan,” he said. “Payroll is tomorrow. If payroll fails, people leave. If people leave, contracts default. If contracts default, Halcyon lowers the offer or walks.”
“You cannot pledge the house.”
“I know.”
“You cannot use Dad’s trust.”
“I know.”
“You cannot keep hiding this from Melissa.”
His face closed.
“That is not part of the business solution.”
“It is part of the debt.”
May you like
“Our marriage is not your project.”
“No. But my money became yours without my consent, so the boundary is not where you wish it were.”
