Chapter 6 - WHAT RICHARD WAS REALLY CELEBRATING
Lily’s birthday party had another purpose.
Richard never told me.
Julian Sterling was not there because he knew our family socially.
He was there because Richard invited him.
Sterling Capital had recently begun acquiring minority positions in distressed hospitality and mixed-use real-estate projects.
Richard’s company needed money.
Badly.
His father’s business had accumulated more debt than I knew.
Three projects were delayed.
One lender had stopped advancing funds.
A commercial property in Nassau County faced foreclosure if refinancing failed.
Richard wanted Julian.
The birthday party was disguised networking.
The large guest list.
Caterer.
Expensive wine.
People I barely knew.
I had complained.
“It’s Lily’s birthday.”
“It’s family.”
It wasn’t.
It was a pitch with a four-year-old’s cake in the middle.
Richard expected Julian to see a successful young executive surrounded by family, property and respectable friends.
Instead Julian watched him force his wife’s face into a cake and call her a waitress.
Even without the orchid ring, the investment had probably died.
Richard understood that.
That was why he began calling me seventeen minutes after I left.
Not to ask if Lily was okay.
His first voicemail said:
What the hell did you tell Sterling?
The second:
Call me before you make this worse.
The third:
Do not discuss our marriage with him.
May you like
I saved all three.
Then turned off the phone.
