Collateral A Novels & Stories

I stood up smoothly, bypassing my tablet, and tapped the interactive smart-board screen, dragging Schedule C-9 into the center display while zooming in on the microscopic footnote at the base of page thirty-eight. "Do not sign that addendum," I said, my voice clear, firm, and entirely devoid of hesitation as I addressed the entire board. "Vanguard’s legal team has embedded a conditional cross-collateralization trigger in the secondary currency conversion formula. If you look at the multiplier applied on line fourteen, coupled with the New York jurisdictional fallback on page thirty-eight, it grants them first-lien priority over our primary corporate real estate assets in the event of an over

I asked him. He looked at his feet again. Then he raised his head to look at me. “The bank didn’t grant me the loan ‘cause I didn’t have the collateral,” he said, and I could relate with him because when a customer approaches a bank for a loan, the bank always demands collateral so they can protect their money. However, that he didn’t have collateral? “So, you went to a loan shark?” I questioned. “Yes, they were the only ones eager to loan me without it. And if I failed to pay back with interest, they were going to kill me.”

~~~~~~~~~~ Earlier, before he stormed in like a god of vengeance, I had found the file. Tucked beneath the false bottom of the drawer in the study he stupidly let me wander into. Names. Ledgers. Photographs. Some of them stained in blood. One in particular stood out, my father's name written in red ink, circled multiple times. And next to it, a single word: "Collateral." I didn’t know if it was Lorenzo’s handwriting or someone else's. But it was enough. Enough to know that the marriage, the threats, the warnings, it was never about alliance.

Even his smile is threatening - not out of actual happiness but madness. Like he's found a new shiny toy to play with. Oh dad...what have you done? "C-collateral?" I ask, feeling a cold sweat cover my back. The man tilts his head and uses his left hand to touch my hair. I immediately flinch. "Yes. A collateral. This will guarantee your father returns every single penny he owes me. I will give him three months to sort it out, until then- you are mine." He lets go of my hair and grabs my chin.