Chapter 9 - The House of Cards Collapses
When Stuart arrived home to his four-thousand-square-foot suburban split-level, the front door was wide open.
Suitcases were lined up in the driveway.
Jennifer stood in the walk-in closet of the master bedroom, frantically stuffing designer clothes, jewelry boxes, and winter coats into Louis Vuitton luggage.
"What are you doing?!" Stuart screamed, dropping his office boxes onto the hardwood floor.
Jennifer spun around. Her eyes were swollen, her face streaked with mascara, looking like a feral cat backed into a corner.
"What am I doing?!" she shrieked. "The bank called, Stuart! The bank! They declined the mortgage payment on this house! The home equity line of credit is maxed out! What did you do with the emergency fund?!"
"I used it to pay down the margin call on my brokerage account last month!" Stuart yelled back, his voice cracking. "I told you it was temporary! I told you Mom’s house would cover everything!"
"Mom’s house is gone, you idiot!" Jennifer screamed, hurling a high-heeled shoe at his head. Stuart ducked as it struck the wall, gouging the drywall. "She played you! She made you look like a complete, incompetent fool! Everyone is talking about it! The club suspended our membership this morning! Dr. Campbell’s wife texted the entire tennis group! I am a laughingstock!"
"I lost my job, Jennifer!" Stuart cried out, falling to his knees beside the bed. "Keller fired me! I have to pay back sixty-four grand in three weeks or I’m going to prison! You have to help me! We can liquidate your jewelry, we can sell your car—"
Jennifer stopped packing. She looked down at him with an expression of such cold, absolute disgust that it made Stuart stop breathing.
"Liquidate *my* jewelry?" she whispered. "Sell *my* car to pay for your embezzling?"
She zipped up her suitcase with a violent, final hiss.
"I’m taking Max and going to my mother’s in Scottsdale," she said, her voice dropping into icy contempt.
"What about Lily?" Stuart begged, crawling toward her. "Where is Lily?!"
"Lily packed her bags three hours ago and took an Uber to the bus station," Jennifer spat. "She said she’d rather sleep on a park bench than spend another night under the same roof as you. She hates you, Stuart. We all hate you."
"Jennifer, please! We're a family! You can't leave me like this!"
Jennifer grabbed her luggage handles and pulled them past him, not offering even a glance back.
"A family needs money, Stuart," she said as she reached the bedroom door. "And you don't have any left."
The front door slammed shut twenty seconds later.
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Stuart Vance lay face-down on the plush carpet of his master bedroom, entirely alone, listening to the silence of a house he couldn't afford, surrounded by bills he couldn't pay, with no mother left to rescue him.
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