Chapter 7 - WHY DANIEL NEEDED MY CREDIT
Mercer HomeWorks was not merely struggling.
It had been insolvent for almost a year.
Daniel hid it from me.
From Ashley too, initially.
Three large renovation projects went badly.
One homeowner withheld final payment over structural defects.
Another sued over delays and water damage.
A third project was underbid so aggressively that completing it created a loss.
Daniel began using deposits from new jobs to finish old ones.
Not an unusual path for failing contractors.
A dangerous one.
When suppliers tightened terms, he needed liquidity.
His own credit was already damaged.
Ashley’s was heavily utilized.
Mine was excellent.
So Daniel became me long enough to open a line.
At first he intended to repay it after a commercial contract closed.
The contract fell through.
Instead of telling me, he drew more.
Then more.
By the time of my seventieth birthday, Mercer HomeWorks owed:
suppliers;
tax authorities;
two private lenders;
the fraudulent credit line;
and me, though I had stopped keeping track of what I personally called “loans.”
Their house also carried a second mortgage I had never known about.
The beautiful lifestyle was leverage stacked on leverage.
The birthday dinner was not a celebration held by people who were comfortable.
It was a performance by people terrified that the man financing the floor beneath them might finally look down.
May you like
I had looked down.
The floor was gone.
