Chapter 5 - The Collapse of Turner & Associates
The fallout from the conference room swept through Nathaniel’s life with the force of a hurricane.
Unable to face criminal charges that would permanently strip him of his real estate license, Nate signed the settlement agreement twenty-two hours later.
Within forty-eight hours, the news of his financial fraud and personal scandal leaked into the tight-knit Chicago real estate community.
It turned out that when a senior surgical director at Northwestern Medicine launches a forensic audit, people notice. Several high-net-worth investors who had backed Turner & Associates pulled their capital overnight after discovering Nate had been mismanaging company funds to cover up his personal debts.
By the following Friday, Turner & Associates filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
I stood in the sunlit living room of my Lincoln Park brownstone, watching two movers carefully pack up the remaining boxes of Nate's belongings.
The heavy mahogany furniture he had chosen to make the house look "established" was gone. The fake art prints he had bought to impress his mother were down. In their place, sunlight flooded through the high arched windows, illuminating the pristine hardwood floors and the open, beautiful space that was finally, truly mine.
The doorbell rang.
I opened the front door to find Susan Turner standing on the porch.
She was not wearing her usual tailored designer suits or her pearl necklace. She wore a plain beige raincoat, her hair unstyled, looking older and more tired than I had ever seen her.
"Hannah," she said quietly.
I held the door frame, not inviting her inside. "Susan."
"Can I... can I talk to you for five minutes?" she asked, her voice lacking any of its former bite. "Please."
I looked at my watch. "You have five minutes."
She stepped into the foyer, looking around at the half-empty house with a look of profound sorrow.
"Robert and I are moving back to Naples next month," Susan said, her hands tightly folded over her purse. "Robert... Robert couldn't take the embarrassment. His friends at the club... everyone knows what Nathaniel did."
"I'm sorry Robert had to go through that," I said honestly. "Robert was always kind to me, even when he didn't know who I really was."
Susan winced at the subtle sting in my words.
"I came to apologize, Hannah," Susan whispered, tears welling in her old eyes. "Not just for Nathaniel... but for me."
I stayed silent, letting her speak.
"I spent eight years treating you like you weren't good enough for my son," Susan sobbed, wiping her cheek with a tissue. "I judged you because you didn't talk about grand accomplishments or wear expensive clothes. I thought my son was the one holding this marriage together... I thought he was the successful one."
She looked up at me, her eyes red. "I was so blind. He was leaching off you. He was hiding behind your grace because he was too small of a man to admit what you were."
"He didn't hide alone, Susan," I pointed out gently. "You created an environment where he felt he had to lie to be loved. You measured human worth by titles and bank accounts."
"I know," Susan wept. "And God help me, I lost my daughter-in-law... the woman who saved my son's life while he was betraying her."
She reached into her purse and pulled out a small velvet box, setting it on the entryway table.
"This belonged to Nathaniel's grandmother," Susan said. "It was meant to be passed down to the woman who kept our family together. It belongs to you. Do whatever you want with it."
May you like
She turned and walked out the door, her shoulders slouched, disappearing into the Chicago drizzle.
I looked at the velvet box for a moment. Then, without opening it, I placed it inside the box marked Nathaniel's Personal Items for the movers to take away.
