Chapter 9 - ELEANOR’S SECRET PAYMENTSThe plea required Marcus to repay every dollar he personally withdrew from Crown Meridian.
Rachel arranged a meeting with the prosecutor.
Jonathan attended only as the representative of Reed Holdings.
He sat across the conference table in a charcoal suit.
The red mark from the slap had faded.
The distance had not.
Marcus avoided his eyes.
The prosecutor summarized the case.
Blake Sutton organized the fraud.
Marcus forged signatures and made false representations to investors.
His cooperation could reduce the charge, but it would not erase it.
“You may receive probation, community service and financial penalties,” she said.
“If Blake is convicted.”
“What if he isn’t found?” Marcus asked.
“Your responsibility does not depend on his.”
Jonathan watched his son hear the sentence.
For years, Marcus’s consequences depended on someone else’s behavior.
Not anymore.
The prosecutor left to allow counsel to confer.
Marcus looked at Jonathan.
“Are you going to repay the lender?”
“Reed Holdings will protect the property from wrongful seizure.”
“Then the loan disappears?”
“No. The company will pursue every responsible party.”
“Including me.”
“Yes.”
Marcus laughed bitterly.
“You could solve this with one transfer.”
“I could also pay someone to take your probation. The fact that I can afford something does not make it right.”
“I’m your son.”
Jonathan’s eyes hardened.
“You said that before you slapped me.”
Marcus looked down.
“I was angry.”
“So was I.”
“You never lose control.”
“I learned what it costs.”
“When?”
Jonathan closed the file.
“That is not relevant.”
“It is if you expect me to become you.”
“I do not.”
The answer surprised Marcus.
“I expect you to become a man whose decisions do not require his parents to hide the damage.”
Rachel reminded Marcus that cooperation needed to begin immediately.
He signed an agreement to provide account access.
Jonathan stood.
“Dad.”
He stopped.
Marcus struggled.
“I shouldn’t have hit you.”
Jonathan looked at him.
The apology was late and incomplete.
But it was the first one.
“No,” Jonathan said. “You shouldn’t have.”
He left.
Marcus expected relief after apologizing.
Instead, he felt the weight more clearly.
Eleanor later gave investigators records of her secret debt payments.
Some money had unknowingly covered earlier Crown Meridian expenses.
She accepted responsibility for concealing them from Jonathan.
No criminal wrongdoing was involved, but her testimony showed how long Marcus’s financial instability had been hidden.
At home, Jonathan asked why she finally disclosed everything.
“Because the truth cannot rehabilitate him if I keep editing it.”
Jonathan took her hand.
“Are you all right?”
“No.”
“Neither am I.”
They had lost the fantasy that wealth could keep their family safe from itself.
That evening, Marcus reviewed his possessions.
Designer shoes.
Custom suits.
Two remaining watches.
Rare bottles.
Furniture in storage.
He began selling them.
The process raised less than he expected.
Luxury had been expensive to acquire and cheap to lose.
After every sale, Marcus transferred the money into a restitution account.
By the end of the month, he had repaid seventy-three thousand dollars.
He still needed more than four hundred thousand.
His apartment rent was due.
For the first time in his life, Marcus opened a job website.
Every executive position required experience he did not have.
At the bottom of one listing page was a night-manager position at a midrange waterfront hotel.
The property was not owned by his father.
Marcus applied.
The following morning, he received a rejection.
The hiring manager believed a wealthy heir would not remain longer than a week.
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Marcus read the message twice.
His surname, once a key, had become proof that he could not be trusted.
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