Chapter 5 - The Desperation of Colette
By 8:00 AM the following morning, the news of Apex BioVentures’ catastrophic collapse had sent shockwaves through the Chicago financial district and the biotech sector.
Inside the presidential suite of the Fairmont Waterfront in downtown Vancouver, where Gavin had booked a lavish four-thousand-dollar weekend to impress Jade, the atmosphere had deteriorated into an unmitigated disaster.
Suitcases lay half-packed on the unmade bed. Jade was sitting on the sofa, sobbing hysterically into a hotel hand towel, her mascara streaked across her cheeks, while Gavin paced the Persian rug in his shirt-sleeves, his tie undone, clutching his phone to his ear with trembling fingers.
On the other end of the line, his mother, Colette, was screaming loud enough to be heard across the room.
“Gavin! What have you done?!” Colette shrieked, her voice shaking with narcissistic rage and terror. “The bank called your father twenty minutes ago! They’re freezing the credit lines on our Naples estate! They say our family trust was cross-collateralized with your partnership shares at Apex! How could you let this happen?!”
“Mom, stop screaming!” Gavin pleaded, running both hands through his disheveled hair. “It’s Ivy! Ivy works for Regent! She’s the senior regulatory strategist on the Meridian acquisition! She’s the one who flagged our Malaysian filings!”
“Ivy?!” Colette gasped, the name catching in her throat like a dry bone. “That quiet, mousy little nobody?! She can't even pick out proper drapes for a dining room! How could she possibly touch your company?!”
“She’s not mousy, Mom!” Gavin shouted, the bitter, humiliating truth finally tearing through his throat. “She’s the lead compliance partner for the largest biotech consultancy in North America! She earns more than I ever did! She’s been funding our lifestyle for ten years! The kitchen you bragged about in Naples was paid for with her consulting fees!”
A heavy, suffocating silence fell over the line.
For three full seconds, Colette Harlow did not draw a breath.
“You... you let her hold that much power?” Colette whispered, her voice cracking into pure, horrified realization. “Gavin... your father’s pension is tied to those shares. If Apex goes under, we lose the house. We lose everything. Call her! Call her right now! Offer to double her child support! Offer to give her the Lake Forest house! Tell her she can come back!”
Gavin looked over at Jade, who was staring at him from the sofa, her face pale, her hands resting over her pregnant belly with sudden, nauseating dread as she realized that the wealthy, powerful hedge-fund prince she had seduced was currently standing on the edge of complete, unrecoverable bankruptcy.
“She doesn't want child support, Mom,” Gavin whispered into the phone, his knees buckling as he sank onto the edge of the unmade bed.
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“She doesn't want the house.
And she is never... coming back.”
