Chapter 80 Financial Ruin
Emily’s clothing company was doing really well. She got a bigger space for her boutique, and her designs were sold in several department stores around the country. She didn’t want to tell Byron too much about it yet since he was suffering from the downturn of the economy and the artificial lowering of his stock thanks to Christine’s machinations.
He got home much later than Emily did, but even in the evenings he would be on his phone talking to brokers and financial advisors.
The door to his home office was left half-open, and Emily peeked in after getting a midnight snack. Byron was on the phone, and he sounded desperate.
“I’ve got to have some capital hidden away somewhere,” he was saying into the phone, which he clutched with a white-knuckled grip. “You already emptied those accounts? All of them? Damn!”
Emily couldn’t hear what was being said on the other side, but it was clearly not good.
“We could get another loan from the bank...” Byron was saying. “Well, keep trying. Thanks, Julian.”
As he hung up the phone, Emily entered the room, hoping to alleviate some of his worries.
“Well, that’s it, we must bid adieu to the limo,” Byron declared, “Alistair will be out of work. I’ll have to sell one of my cars to give him severance pay. And of course, no more private jet flights or boat rides.”
It seemed like he was no longer pretending the situation wasn’t dire.
“There must be something you can do,” Emily said.
He shook his head. “I’ve gone through all the options. I could declare bankruptcy, but it would put my employees out of work in many of my enterprises. I’ve been trying to prevent it but might have to go ahead after all.”
“At least you would still have your movie studio and your Italian restaurant,” Emily reminded him.
“The restaurant barely makes ends meet,” he said. “The rents are just too high in that part of the city. I usually have to pour money in from my other enterprises just to support it.”
“Oh.”
“And the movie studio is a bit of a gamble.” He was still not willing to admit that he had chosen intentionally bad films to make. It was highly unlikely the studio would regain the money spent on the three ridiculous projects, but Emily didn’t want to say ‘I told you so’ when he was faced with such a dire financial crisis.
“I’m glad you didn’t choose me for my wealth,” Byron said with a wistful smile, “because there might not be much left by the time Mr. Pierre Pollock is done with me.”
“I don’t care about the wealth,” Emily said, “but I hate to see you so defeated. We can’t let him win. He’s just a mindless minion of Christine.”
“There’s nothing I can do,” Byron said with an air of resignation. “I’ve tried to hold out this long, but I only have another week before I go into bad debt or declare myself bankrupt.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to try my plan?” Emily asked.
“At the rate we’re losing money, it maybe too late.”
“Then you’ve got literally nothing to lose.”
Byron took a long breath. “This is Christine we’re talking about. She’s fairly clever in her own twisted way.”
“Not more clever than you,” Emily said, “And we know she craves money and status. You could use it against her. But more than anything, I believe she craves you. So, there’s only one way to solve this. You have to ‘get back together’ with Christine.”
“We were never really together,” Byron said, a disgusted look crossing his face, “We went on one or two dates, that’s it.”
“All the more reason to lavish your attention on her,” Emily suggested.
“And that wouldn’t make you jealous?” he asked, winking.
“You tell me, do I have any need to be jealous?”
“When it comes to Christine, I think not. Or anyone, for that matter.” He pulled her into his lap, and Emily could feel the tension in his body. She was angry enough at Christine to set her up with what could be the biggest disappointment of her life.
