Chapter 13 - BEFORE FIVE
The shortened deadline gave them nineteen hours.
Lydia filed for emergency court relief and prepared the supporting declarations.
Ruth authenticated her records.
Grace organized the payments.
Claire called board members directly.
Ethan called customers.
Not to beg.
To tell them their freight would move and their contracts would be honored.
By midnight, he had spoken to eleven people.
Some believed him.
Some asked for guarantees he couldn’t give.
One longtime customer stayed silent for so long Ethan thought the call had dropped.
Then the man said, “Your father once sent a truck through a snowstorm because my order got lost.”
“I remember.”
“He didn’t charge me.”
“I remember that too.”
“We’ll stay for now.”
For now was enough.
At two in the morning, Ethan rested on the office couch.
His legs burned.
Claire handed him water.
“You have to sleep.”
“I have to keep the warehouses.”
“You won’t keep anything if you collapse before the meeting.”
He closed his eyes.
When he opened them forty minutes later, Reed was sitting across the room.
Claire stood by the door.
Lydia was beside him.
Nobody had let Reed in alone.
He looked older than he had at the gala.
“I’ll tell you everything,” he said.
Ethan sat up.
“Start.”
Reed admitted the investment loss.
Voss had offered to cover it.
In exchange, Reed would help arrange an acquisition.
Vanessa discovered the missing money.
Instead of exposing him, she demanded a share.
Nolan handled the false expenses.
“What about the car?” Ethan asked.
Reed rubbed his hands together.
“I knew Nolan was doing something.”
“What?”
“He said you’d be unavailable for a few weeks.”
Claire stepped forward.
“A few weeks?”
“I didn’t know he meant—”
“Stop,” Ethan said.
Reed stopped.
“You knew enough to warn me.”
His old friend looked down.
“Yes.”
Lydia told Reed that any further statement involving potential criminal conduct required independent counsel.
He agreed to contact a lawyer.
Before leaving, he placed a copy of a side agreement on the desk.
“Vanessa won’t get the company,” he said. “Voss will cut her out too.”
Ethan looked at the final page.
A sale had already been arranged.
The warehouses were scheduled for closure.
May you like
One hundred eighty-three jobs.
And Vanessa had signed beneath the plan.
