Chapter 8 - THE $180 MILLION LOAN
By 4:00 a.m., nobody cared about my marriage.
Fourteen thousand employees cared whether they would be paid.
That mattered more.
I called the CFO.
“Cash position?”
“Enough for nine days without the facility.”
“Sellable reserves?”
“Yes, but not fast enough everywhere.”
Dad said.
“I can personally guarantee a bridge.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“Elena.”
“We are not fixing hidden debt with hidden family money.”
I called every regional manager.
No speeches.
No details about Julian.
Just facts.
Payroll would clear.
Operations would continue.
Nobody was to retaliate against staff who had followed Julian’s orders.
Including the guards who removed me.
Dad watched me after the final call.
“You’re protecting them.”
“They did their jobs.”
“Julian humiliated you through them.”
“That doesn’t make them guilty.”
At 4:18, the bank chairman finally called.
He sounded terrified.
He had not ordered the freeze.
The debt officer had.
The same man from the garage footage.
Martin Sloane.
Martin had overridden internal procedure using an emergency risk clause.
Why?
Because someone had supplied documents claiming Laurent Heritage Trust was insolvent.
Documents carrying Dad’s signature.
Dad stared.
“That isn’t mine.”
Another forgery.
Then the chairman said something worse.
May you like
“Martin disappeared twenty minutes ago.”
