Chapter 3 - The Morning Panic
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At 8:45 AM the following morning, the sleek, glass-walled offices of Parker Industries were a scene of absolute, unmitigated chaos.
I wasn't there, of course. I was sitting in my favorite corner booth at a quiet downtown coffee shop, watching the stock ticker on my tablet while sipping a flat white. But Susan was inside the building, delivering the news in person, and keeping a phone line open in her pocket so I could listen to the fallout.
“You can’t just withdraw the term sheet!” Daniel Parker’s voice echoed through the speaker, shrill and panicked. “We’ve already committed the capital to the downtown development project! We broke ground yesterday!”
“The term sheet was contingent on a final executive review, Mr. Parker,” Susan replied, her tone as cold and hard as a diamond. “My client exercised her right to terminate the agreement. The paperwork is perfectly legal.”
“Who the hell is your client?!” Daniel screamed, the sound of paper being slammed onto a desk reverberating through the phone. “I want to speak to the CEO of Riverstone right now! I want a name!”
“You already have her name, Daniel,” Ethan’s voice entered the background, sounding hollow and completely defeated.
“What are you talking about, Ethan?” Daniel snapped. “Fix this! Call your fiancée! She organized the initial meetings, maybe she can get us a grace period!”
“She didn't organize the meetings,” Ethan said, his voice trembling slightly. “She authorized them. Claire is Riverstone. She’s the majority shareholder.”
Silence fell over the boardroom. I took a slow, satisfying sip of my coffee.
“That’s... that’s impossible,” Daniel stammered, the aggressive bluster entirely draining from his voice. “She’s just a girl from the South Side. Her mother sews pants for a living.”
“And her daughter holds the deed to your future,” Susan interjected sharply. “The Riverstone capital is officially withdrawn. Furthermore, pursuant to the nondisclosure clauses you violated by attempting to leverage our name to secure secondary loans, we are filing a formal complaint with the SEC. Have your legal team contact me. Good day, gentlemen.”
I listened to the sound of Susan’s heels clicking on the hardwood floor as she left the boardroom, followed by the heavy thud of the door shutting.
A moment later, my personal cell phone began to vibrate violently on the table. The caller ID flashed Ethan’s name.
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I didn't decline the call. I simply let it ring, watching the screen light up again, and again, and again.
The Parkers were finally awake. And the nightmare had just begun.
