Chapter 3 - The Lawyer's Call
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Outside the hotel’s glass grand entrance, heavy rain shimmered against the ambient streetlight glow. My hands were trembling from the shock, but my voice remained completely level as the line connected.
“Daniel,” I said clearly. “I need you to activate the protections in the Mercer file.”
There was a long silence on the other end of the line, broken only by the faint rustle of papers.
“All of them, Claire?” Daniel Shaw asked softly.
“All of them.”
Daniel had been my lead corporate attorney for six years. More importantly, he had spent the last year warning my parents that their lavish lifestyle was dragging them into a financial abyss.
Dad’s commercial construction firm had only survived the last eighteen months because I personally signed a two-hundred-thousand-dollar emergency credit line guarantee. On top of that, I had co-signed the refinancing paperwork on my parents’ primary residence after Dad swore on his life that the money would be used exclusively to stabilize his company’s payroll.
Three months ago, I conducted a routine audit and discovered he had blatantly lied to me.
He had systematically diverted corporate funds to pay for Madison’s caterers, Trevor’s prospective restaurant lease, and an extravagant ten-day tropical honeymoon package.
When I confronted Dad privately back then, he broke down in tears, promising to repay every cent before the end of the quarter. Foolishly, I had believed him. I had delayed executing the legal revocation documents Daniel had drafted.
Instead of repaying me, my father had decided that my brand-new seventy-eight-thousand-dollar car was his to steal and gift to his favorite daughter.
Daniel exhaled deeply over the phone. “Claire, you understand what happens the moment I submit these revocation notices? The bank will freeze all further draws immediately. Your formal guarantee withdrawal will trigger an automatic risk review of the entire firm.”
“I am well aware.”
“The business could default within forty-eight hours,” Daniel added carefully. “Are you entirely sure?”
May you like
I looked through the towering glass windows of the ballroom. Inside, Madison was holding up my silver key fob for a photographer while Dad toasted himself with a fresh glass of champagne.
“Send it,” I commanded. “Send every single notice right now.”
