Deprived of the Sterling name and the unlimited corporate credit cards, Julian’s standing in Richmond’s business elite vanished overnight. The “influential corporate consultant” turned out to be entirely helpless without a multi-million-dollar trust funding his lifestyle.
To avoid bankruptcy and pending civil suits for corporate conversion, he was forced to liquidate his personal luxury sports car and move into a cramped, two-bedroom apartment on the industrial outskirts of town—a place where the train horns blew every two hours through the night.
Tessa, unable to accept that her days of country club luncheons and high-end spa trips were over, had moved in with him. Friends who had endured their family’s condescension for years reported back to me with quiet satisfaction that the mother-and-son duo spent most of their days fiercely arguing over grocery budgets and utility bills.
