Chapter 4
That night, David didn't come home.
His only message was a text. [Working late. Don't wait up.]
I didn't reply.
I opened my laptop and logged into our shared photo cloud, the one he'd created when we got married, for memories.
There were over three thousand photos.
I scrolled through them all. From our honeymoon, anniversaries, and various snapshots, all the way to the last one.
It was uploaded a year and a half ago.
It had been that long.
The last photo was from the day he accompanied me to my grandmother's grave.
I closed the cloud.
The next morning, Tuesday, I'd just sat down at my desk when my phone rang.
It was David.
"Charlotte, I need to talk to you about something," he said.
"Go ahead," I replied.
"The company's cash flow is tight right now. The bank needs additional collateral. Do you have anything we could use temporarily?"
"Meaning?"
"Like... your mom's jewelry, that jadeite set. Just for an appraisal. We wouldn't be selling it, just using it as collateral. We'd get it back once funds clear."
That jadeite set was my mother's wedding gift from her family.
It was a set of three pieces. A necklace, a pair of earrings, and a bangle. All were made from icy green, top-grade jadeite.
Last time it was appraised at nearly 2.7 million dollars.
"No," I refused.
"Charlotte—" he pleaded.
"I said no."
There was a pause on his end.
"Do you have any idea what kind of situation the company is in? We have a 10 million liquidity gap. I'm juggling the banks every single day. Can't you just help me out here?" he said.
"You gave away a six-million-dollar watch. Did you think about that gap then?" I asked.
"That's different!"
"It's the same to me."
He hung up first.
I stared at my phone screen. The lock screen wallpaper was our wedding photo.
It was taken in Bali five years ago. He had his arm around me, both of us grinning widely.
I changed the wallpaper to a generic landscape.
At three in the afternoon, my coworker came running over. "Charlotte! Someone's at the front desk for you. She's making a scene."
I walked to reception.
My mother-in-law was standing in front of the marble counter, her voice loud enough to be heard on the entire floor.
"I want to see Charlotte. Get her out here now!" she shouted.
The receptionist looked terrified.
"Here I am," I called out.
She whirled on me, pointing a finger. "Charlotte, David's company is about to collapse. Do you understand that? He asked you to help, and you said no! Do you want to see him go bankrupt?"
There were at least seven or eight coworkers in the lobby.
Everyone was watching.
"This is my workplace," I said.
"I don't care where this is." She took a step closer. "You've been part of the David family for five years, eating our food, wearing our clothes. Now the family is in trouble, and you won't lift a finger? Have you no loyalty to David?"
Her accusation was ridiculous.
My salary, 4,000 dollars a month, had been going into our joint account for five years straight.
"Let's go home and talk," I said.
"Talk? I'm not leaving until this is settled!" She looked around the lobby, raising her voice even higher.
"Everyone here, be the judge. A wife sees her husband's company about to fail. She has assets she could use to help, but she refuses. What kind of wife does that?" she shouted.
No one said a word.
But everyone was watching.
I stepped closer to her and lowered my voice. "If you keep this up, I'm calling security."
She froze. "What? You'd call security on me? I'm your mother-in-law!"
"You are," I said, holding her gaze. "But this is my place of work."
I turned to the front desk. "Please call building security."
My mother-in-law's face flushed a deep red.
She pointed at me, her lips trembling. For a moment, no words came out.
Finally, she hissed, "Fine. Fine, Charlotte. You've got nerve. I'm telling you now, if David's company goes under, I will make your life a living hell."
She turned and stormed out.
The lobby fell silent again.
But that silence was suffocating.
I went back to my appraisal room, closed the door, and sat there for a long time.
My phone buzzed again.
It was a message from my boss, Richard Young. [Charlotte, come to my office, please.]
I took a deep breath and went.
"Sit down." He poured me a cup of tea. "I'm not going to pry into your personal affairs. But there's something you might want to know."
I looked at him.
"Obsidian Capital was recently questioned by the SEC. I don't know all the details, but there are rumors in the industry about irregularities in some of their fund flows."
Obsidian Capital. That was Madeline's company.
"How did you find out?" I asked.
"Someone from Goldman Sachs mentioned it at last week's auction." He took a sip of tea. "I'm telling you this because I think your husband's company has a partnership with them."
A 100 million dollar project. A 10 million dollar funding gap. Obsidian Capital was called in by the regulators.
There had to be a connection.
I went back to my desk and started digging.