Chapter 5 - The Summons
Three days passed in absolute, breathless silence for the Sterling family.
During that time, the business pages of every major publication in the United States ran front-page exposés on the sudden, catastrophic collapse of Apex Holdings. Banks foreclosed on their sprawling waterfront mansion in Coral Gables. Luxury sports cars were repossessed from the driveway while neighbors watched from behind parted blinds. The country club quietly suspended their memberships before the ink on the cancellation notices could even dry.
On the fourth morning, a black courier envelope was hand-delivered to the modest downtown apartment where my parents had been forced to temporarily relocate.
My father opened the heavy parchment envelope with trembling, age-spotted hands. Inside was a single sheet of heavy cardstock bearing the embossed gold crest of Campbell Enterprises.
At the top, in crisp, elegant typography, was a formal summons:
Mr. Arthur Sterling,
You and your immediate family are cordially requested to attend a private executive briefing at Campbell Tower, Penthouse Suite 75, on Friday, August 7th, at exactly 10:00 AM.
Failure to attend will result in immediate escalation of federal bankruptcy proceedings and criminal indictment for corporate malfeasance.
By order of the Office of the Chief Executive, Blake Campbell.
May you like
My mother stared at the paper as if it were a venomous snake. “We have to go,” she whispered, her voice hollow. “If we don't go, Arthur, they'll put you in federal prison.”
My father didn't argue. The arrogant, booming patriarch who had laughed as he shoved his own daughter into a fountain was gone, replaced by a broken, defeated old man who understood, with terrifying clarity, that he had brought down the wrath of a god upon his own head.
