Chapter 8
Back in Manhattan, Ethan’s custom gold-plated smartphone buzzed relentlessly against the Persian rug where he had dropped it.
He crawled across the floor like a wounded animal, snatching the device up to see an incoming call from his chief financial officer.
"Talk to me! Tell me the freeze has been lifted!" Ethan screamed into the speaker the moment he answered.
"Sir, it's catastrophic!" the CFO yelled over the frantic noise of shouting traders in the background.
"Every institutional investor just pulled out of our municipal bond project within the last ten minutes!"
"The SEC has launched a full criminal investigation into our off-balance-sheet subsidiaries!"
Ethan choked on his own breath, his eyes darting frantically toward the federal agents boxing up his luxury watch collection.
"Inject emergency capital from our Swiss escrow account!" Ethan ordered desperately.
"The Swiss accounts were frozen by Interpol twenty seconds ago, Mr. Vance," the CFO reported in a hollow, defeated whisper.
"We are completely bankrupt."
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The phone call disconnected automatically with a sharp electronic beep, leaving Ethan staring blankly at a dead screen.
Eleanor collapsed onto the velvet sofa, her face buried in her hands as her lifelong obsession with social status vanished into thin air.
