Chapter 3 - The Golden Boy’s Gamble
By Wednesday afternoon, the crisis had consumed the entire Montgomery family.
Inside the high-end espresso lounge of the Transamerica Pyramid, Derek sat across from his younger sister, Claire. Claire was nursing an iced matcha latte, looking thoroughly miserable.
"She blocked my number, Derek!" Claire whined, tossing her blonde hair back. "I tried to text her to ask if she was still paying for my bridal shower venue deposit next month, and the message turned green! She blocked me on Instagram, too!"
"Forget your bridal shower, Claire!" Derek hissed, leaning across the small marble table. "Mom and Dad are about to be thrown out onto the street! The Fairmont sent a formal collection agency notice to Dad’s house yesterday for fifty-two thousand dollars. They're threatening to place a legal lien on Dad's retirement account!"
"Well, can't you pay it?" Claire asked naively. "You're a senior partner at your wealth management firm, right? You just bought that new Porsche!"
Derek’s jaw clenched tightly. He looked around the lounge to make sure none of his corporate colleagues were within earshot.
"My firm isn't doing as well as I tell Mom," Derek admitted in a harsh whisper. "The Porsche is leased under my company account. My wife’s country club membership costs three grand a month, and I’m leveraged to the hilt on two speculative tech investments that just crashed. I don't have fifty thousand dollars in liquid cash!"
"So what are we going to do?" Claire gasped, her eyes wide with fear. "If Mom and Dad lose the Marina house, where are they going to live? They can't move in with me—my apartment is a studio!"
"They aren't going to move anywhere," Derek said, a dark, calculating expression crossing his face. "Natalie thinks she can play hardball because she has a lawyer. But she forgot how business works. She operates an independent commercial logistics consulting firm. Who do you think her biggest regional client is?"
Claire blinked. "Who?"
"Pacific Maritime Freight," Derek smiled coldly. "Their CEO, Richard Vance, happens to be a high-tier client at my wealth management firm. I manage his personal family trust. If I tell Richard that Natalie is engaging in unethical family elder abuse and extortion, he’ll pull her two-million-dollar annual consulting contract by Friday."
"Are you sure about that?" Claire asked hesitantly. "Natalie worked really hard for that account..."
"She brought this on herself!" Derek spat. "She humiliated Mom and Dad over a stupid plastic plate at an anniversary party! She needs to learn that she can't mess with this family without getting burned. Once her primary revenue source is threatened, she’ll come crawling back, drop the rent demand, pay the Fairmont bill, and sign the house over to Mom like she was supposed to."
Two hours later, Derek was sitting in the corner office of Pacific Maritime Freight overlooking the San Francisco port.
Richard Vance—a formidable man in his late sixties with thick white hair and a sharp navy suit— sat behind his desk, listening silently as Derek finished his carefully rehearsed story.
"...So as you can see, Richard," Derek concluded, putting on an expression of deep, mournful family concern, "my sister Natalie has suffered some sort of severe emotional breakdown. She’s threatening to evict our retired parents from their home of thirty years over a minor misunderstanding, and she’s using aggressive legal tactics. As someone who values corporate ethics, I felt obligated to let you know what kind of person is managing your logistics security."
Richard Vance sat in silence for a long moment. He leaned forward, folded his hands over his mahogany desk, and looked at Derek with cold, piercing blue eyes.
"Are you finished, Derek?" Richard asked quietly.
"Yes," Derek said, puffing out his chest slightly. "I just thought you should know."
Richard picked up a desk phone, pressed an intercom button, and spoke. "Sarah, please bring in the Sterling Heights quarterly audit file."
A few seconds later, an executive assistant walked in, set a thick leather folder on the desk, and walked out.
Richard opened the folder and turned it toward Derek.
"Do you know what this is, Derek?" Richard asked.
"An audit file?"
"This is the operational efficiency review that your sister, Natalie, delivered to my board four weeks ago," Richard stated, his voice like iron. "Over the past six years, Natalie’s firm has reduced our supply chain overhead by seventeen percent. She saved this company fourteen million dollars last fiscal year alone. She is, without question, the single most brilliant operational consultant I have hired in my thirty years as CEO."
Derek swallowed hard, a cold knot forming in his stomach. "Richard, I understand she’s capable, but her character—"
"Her character?" Richard interrupted, a sharp, dangerous laugh escaping his lips. "Let me tell you about her character, Derek. Three years ago, when your father had his double bypass surgery, Natalie stayed in the hospital waiting room for forty-eight hours straight while continuing to manage our port crisis from her laptop. Do you know where you were that week, Derek?"
Derek went completely silent, his face turning pale.
"You were in Cabo on a golfing trip," Richard revealed coldly. "Natalie never told me that, by the way. I know because my son was on the same charter flight."
Richard stood up from his desk, drawing himself to his full height.
"You came into my office," Richard said, pointing a heavy finger at Derek's chest, "and tried to manipulate me into destroying my best consultant's livelihood because she finally decided to stop letting her narcissistic family bleed her dry."
"Richard, please—" Derek stammered, standing up so fast his chair scraped against the hardwood.
"Effective immediately," Richard declared, "Pacific Maritime Freight is terminating its portfolio management contract with your firm. I will be transferring our eighty-million-dollar trust to Vance & Partners by five o'clock today."
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Derek stared at him, his mouth agape. "You... you're firing my firm?"
"I’m firing you," Richard corrected icy. "And if I hear that you have made one more threat against Natalie or her business, I will personally ensure that every executive on the West Coast knows exactly what kind of unprincipled coward you are. Get out of my office."
