Chapter 4 - THE HOUSE OF CARDS FALLS
The humiliation of being marched through the main terminal was something Ethan had never experienced. He dragged his Louis Vuitton luggage across the scuffed tile, his phone pressed aggressively to his ear.
"Pick up, damn it!" he hissed at the phone. His CFO, David, finally answered on the sixth ring.
"Ethan," David’s voice was shaking. "Where are you? Are you on the plane?"
"I’m being treated like a criminal at JFK! Fix the credit accounts right now, David. Call Chase, call Goldman, call whoever you have to call! I am not missing this flight."
"Ethan... there are no accounts," David stammered.
Ethan stopped walking. Vanessa nearly bumped into him. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"Vanguard Holdings pulled their collateral an hour ago," David said, sounding like a man standing on a ledge. "The banks instantly triggered the debt covenants. We don't have a liquidity crisis, Ethan. We have a total collapse. The company is bankrupt. We are in default for over ninety million dollars."
"Vanguard? Vanguard is an anonymous angel firm! They signed a lifetime guarantee eight years ago!"
"They signed a guarantee contingent on the principal stakeholder's marriage," David read from a frantic email on his screen. "Ethan... Vanguard Holdings is controlled by the Bennett Family Trust. It's Grace. Grace is Vanguard."
Ethan’s phone slipped a fraction of an inch from his ear. The bustling noise of the airport faded into a dull, terrifying roar.
From today forward, you want each of us to be responsible for our own expenses...
Her words in the attorney's office weren't a philosophical tragedy. They were a legal execution.
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"Babe?" Vanessa tugged his sleeve. "What did David say? Tell them to fix it. I want a cocktail."
Ethan looked at the woman he had destroyed his marriage for. Suddenly, her demanding pout didn't look cute; it looked expensive. And Ethan didn't have a dime.
