Chapter 3 - THE DEBT COLLECTOR
Charles Halston pushed past his frozen son, Grant, desperation making him reckless. “Mr. Wolfe, please! The board? Decision? We are celebrating a union tonight. Surely business can wait until Monday morning. Let us pour you some of our finest vintage—”
“Your finest vintage,” Adrian interrupted, his voice dropping ten degrees, “is currently dripping onto the marble floor because your new daughter-in-law decided to use it as a weapon against the only person keeping you out of federal bankruptcy court.”
The word bankruptcy dropped like a bomb in the middle of the opulent ballroom. Whispers erupted instantly.
“That’s absurd!” Vivienne shrieked, dropping her polished matriarch act. “Halston Grand is an institution! We are perfectly liquid!”
“You are bleeding eighty million dollars a quarter, Mrs. Halston,” Adrian stated coldly. He didn't raise his voice; he let the brutal facts do the heavy lifting. “Your expansion into the Asian market was a catastrophic failure. Your son, the groom, embezzled company funds to cover bad crypto investments. Your credit lines were frozen forty-eight hours ago. Yesterday morning, Wolfe Meridian Capital purchased the entirety of Halston Grand’s distressed debt.”
Grant took a step back, bumping into the wedding cake table, his face ashen. Sabrina looked at her new husband in horror.
“As of this moment,” Adrian continued, the silence in the room now thick with terror, “I own this hotel. I own the chairs you are sitting on. I own the catering company that provided the food you are eating. And tomorrow morning, I am initiating a hostile takeover to strip this company down to its copper wiring.”
Charles clutched his chest. “You can’t do this. We can negotiate! I’ll give you whatever terms you want!”
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Adrian looked down at Evelyn, the corner of his mouth lifting in a faint, dangerous smirk. “You are speaking to the wrong person, Charles. I don't handle the micro-evaluations of distressed assets.” He gestured to Evelyn. “Allow me to introduce Evelyn Hart. Senior Vice President of Restructuring at Wolfe Meridian Capital. She is the lead analyst on the Halston portfolio. I am solely here because she requested my signature on the liquidation papers.”
The color drained from Sabrina's face. The woman she had just humiliated, the woman she had kept around merely to feel superior to, held the absolute power to destroy her new family’s empire.
